B L Macdonald
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 67311 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | B L Macdonald |
| NOMBRES | B L |
| APELLIDO | Macdonald |
| FIRMA | MACDONALD B L |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Missouri |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2887-4351 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 52 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 168 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 52 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2011 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 7 |
Technologies of Transition
The following paper investigates ceramic production and signs of specialization in Rome and the wider region during the early first millennium bce , through an archaeometric approach using Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA), and complementary techniques. A total of 274 ceramic samples from six archaeological sites —four in Rome (Sant'Omobono, Caesar's Forum, Regia, and Palazzo Canevari), Gabii, and San Giovenale—were analyzed using NA…
Production and provenance of Inka pottery in Qullasuyu
Production of glazed ceramics across Mawarannahr
Islamic glazed ceramics, especially the intricately decorated slipwares produced in the eastern Islamic world during the Samanid period (9 th -10 th c. CE), represent a key expression of technological skill, innovation, and economic connectivity. While previous scholarship into these iconic glazed ceramics has largely focused on production in the well-known centers of Nishapur and Samarkand, the scale, organization, and diversity of production ac…
Obsidianas de San Miguel de Renaico 5 (Araucanía, Chile)
En este trabajo se presentan los resultados del análisis geoquímico por fluorescencia de rayos X portátil (pXRF) realizado a 286 piezas de obsidianas del sitio arqueológico San Miguel de Renaico 5 (37,3° S; Araucanía, Chile). Este sitio corresponde a una ocupación de cerca de 800 años, adscrita tanto al Periodo Alfarero Temprano como al Periodo Alfarero Tardío del Sur de Chile. Esto, sumado a su carácter residencial, su ubicación en el valle cent…
Ochre and manganese pigments from the Middle Stone Age layers at Klipdrift Shelter
The use of mineral pigments is considered one of the trademarks of behavioural complexity during the Middle Stone Age in southern Africa. Though many sites report large mineral pigment assemblages during the Still Bay (ca. 71.9–71 ka BP) period, pigment behaviours during the Howieson’s Poort (HP; ca. 65–59.5 ka BP) are less understood in terms of mineral varieties, collection strategies, and associated practices. Though some previous work exists …
How to Prepare for Geoforensic Fieldwork to Investigate Archaeological Resource Crime
Geoforensic analyses complement archaeological resource crime investigations, cultural resource damage assessments, and other investigations involving sediments. Civil and criminal litigation may hinge on attributions of sediments recovered from persons, equipment, objects, and localities to specific source deposits, including altered cultural resources. Geoforensic fieldwork often entails fluid interplays among geological, archaeological, and in…
Archaeological Chemistry and Historical Archaeology
Provenance of pottery from the Florida Keys
Spatio-temporal distribution and consumption of local earthenwares from 19th-20th century Amedeka, Southeastern Ghana
Decoding hunter-gatherer-knowledge and selective choice of lithic raw materials during the Middle and Later Stone Age in Eswatini
Why is it so difficult to work on geochemical composition? Supervised geochemical composition data processing to study colouring iron oxide-rich rocks in archaeological contexts
Assemblage first
Slips, films, and material choice
Neutron Activation Analysis Reveals Jamaican Origin of Afro-Caribbean Ware Excavated from the Cayman Islands
Afro-Caribbean ware is Caribbean-made pottery manufactured both at the craft and industrial scale by enslaved and free potters of African descent. Previous sourcing studies have shown historic variation in centers of production and market distribution of these wares across the Caribbean. We used Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) on a clay sample and 13 low-fired coarse earthenware sherds excavated from the historic-period Jackson Wall Manor site …
LA‐ICP‐MS analysis of glass beads from Tié (12th–14th centuries), Kanem, Chad
Chemical analysis of glass from African archaeological sites has become a standard research tool over the past decades. Despite the multiplication of studies, the continent still exhibits vast unexplored regions. One of these is the surroundings of Lake Chad. This paper discusses the results of LA‐ICP‐MS analysis of recently excavated glass beads from the late medieval Chadian site of Tié. We demonstrate that the composition of those glass beads …
Petrographic and geochemical analyses of pottery from Wadi Tanuf, Oman
This study describes the petrographic and geochemical characteristics of pottery collected from Mugharat al‐Kahf and WTN02 in Wadi Tanuf, north‐central Oman, to clarify interregional similarities and differences in pottery production techniques and examine the existence of interregional trade in pottery with respect to changes in mobile communities. Potsherds from these sites were characterised using thin‐section petrography and instrumental neut…
Materials science insights into Indigenous rock art painters and ochre pigment materiality at Babine Lake, Canada
Obsidian on the Island
We present the first geochemical data of archaeological obsidian for Isla Victoria, Nahuel Huapi National Park in Patagonia. XRF analyses were performed on 15 samples of obsidian-like rocks from the Puerto Tranquilo 1 site. Only five of the artifacts-all of which come from upper levels of the site-correspond to obsidian as a raw material. The provenance analysis indicates the use of obsidian sources located in the Andean Forest area of southern N…
Trayectorias Ocupacionales Y Espacios Locales Durante Los Periodos Alfareros en Los Valles De Puangue Y Angostura, Chile Central
Las sociedades prehispanas de los periodos alfareros en Chile central han sido descritas en la arqueologa como sociedades de baja escala. Aqu planteamos que la localidad o microrregin son escalas espaciales de anlisis relevantes para abordar la vida econmica, social y poltica de estos grupos a partir del anlisis comparativo de dos reas: Angostura y Puangue-Pomaire. Si bien ambas reas comparten una secuencia general, producto de un proceso histric…
An integrated study of glazed ceramics from tortkul sites in the Talas River Valley, Kazakhstan (10-12th c. CE)
NAA revealed six compositional groups present in a group of 74 glazed ceramics from three tortkul sites in the Talas Valley • Compositional study indicates active circulation of glazed wares in the Talas Valley, and a diversity of production centers • Microstructure suggests glazing technology was introduced by skilled craftspeople knowledgeable of Islamic craft traditions • Identified unique Sb- and Sn-opacified glazes, a technological tradition…
Codesigned Archaeological Research in the Alligator Rivers Region, Northern Territory, Australia
In much of the Western world, collaborative research undertaken by settler archaeologists readily lends itself, at least in part, to a continuation of the colonial project. Yet, against this backdrop, Australia's First Nations’ peoples continue to work with researchers and to drive systemic change in research practice. Community-engaged archaeology, defined here as codeveloped studies of ancestral places (following Schaepe et al. 2017), is direct…
The Purísima Concepción Archaeological Project (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina) – An Interdisciplinary Approach
In January 1765, the Spanish merchant frigate Purísima Concepción went aground on the Atlantic coast of Tierra del Fuego while sailing along the Cape Horn route from Cádiz to Lima. The shipwreck survivors remained in the island for nearly three months, time devoted to the construction of another vessel while interacting peacefully with the native population. In view of the historical significance of this event, an archaeological project was condu…
Preliminary results on the applicability of neutron activation analysis (NAA) to identify cherts from the Munsungun Lake Formation, Maine, USA
Red chert attributed to the Munsungun Lake Formation, Maine, USA is common in late Pleistocene fluted‐point‐period archaeological sites located throughout the New England states and Quebec, appearing more frequently than any other material type in the region. Despite the assumed association between red Munsungun chert and fluted‐point‐period sites, until recently, it was not possible to link red chert artifacts from these sites to a specific sour…
Socioeconomic roles of Holocene marine shell beads reveal the daily life of composite objects from East Kalimantan, Borneo
Cultural objects composed of composite materials with differing physical properties are often differentially preserved in archaeological records favouring those materials less susceptible to taphonomic processes. Using microscopically observed wear patterns to decipher a model of socioeconomic roles for composite beaded objects, this study examines the rich marine shell bead assemblage excavated from Liang Jon in East Kalimantan, Borneo. Assessme…
Picking up the pieces
This study compares chemical data of 224 sherds from Early Intermediate Period Huarpa and Middle Horizon Wari pottery to investigate settlement dynamics. All sherds were first identified stylistically and chronologically. Data from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) were combined and generated 11 chemically similar compositional groups (CGs). CGs are cultural artifacts of artisan ag…
Deconstructing a complex obsidian “source‐scape”
Northwestern Patagonia is located in a tectonically active part of the southern Andes (Argentina), which has facilitated the formation of obsidian, including pyroclastic deposits that have been affected by geomorphic processes, resulting in a complex obsidian landscape. To date, the geomorphic relocation of obsidian in the landscape has not been a focus of systematic research, and this hampers our understanding of prehistoric human mobility. We p…
Geochemical characterization of ochre from central coastal British Columbia, Canada
Obsidian geochemistry, geoarchaeology, and lithic technology in northwestern Patagonia (Argentina)
First large‐scale provenance study of pigments reveals new complex behavioural patterns during the Upper Palaeolithic of south‐western Germany
The use of red iron‐based earth pigments, or ochre, is a key component of early symbolic behaviours for anatomically modern humans and possibly Neanderthals. We present the first ochre provenance study in Central Europe showing long‐term selection strategies by inhabitants of cave sites in south‐western Germany during the Upper Palaeolithic (43–14.5 ka). Ochre artefacts from Hohle Fels, Geißenklösterle and Vogelherd, and local and extra‐local sou…
Obsidian sources from the southern Andean highlands (Laguna del Diamante, Argentina and Chile)
A preliminary study on ochre sources in Southwestern Germany and its potential for ochre provenance during the Upper Paleolithic
Elemental Analysis of Ochre Outcrops in Southern British Columbia, Canada
Ochre is a red mineral pigment that was a key element of social and ceremonial practices among cultures of the P acific N orthwest C oast. It is recovered routinely from archaeological excavations, is visible as pigment for pictographs, and is described in the historical record as a trade item and component of ceremonial practices. Despite its ubiquity in the archaeological record, it is difficult to interpret its significance without first under…
Sources of obsidian artefacts, exchange networks and landscape use in Auca Mahuida (Neuquén, north‐western Patagonia)
The results of the X‐ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis of 59 obsidian samples from 11 archaeological sites in the Auca Mahuida region of north‐western Neuquén, Argentina, are present. They indicate that several obsidian sources were used; however, the intensities of their exploitation were variable. Strong differences appear between the Colorado River basin, characterized by a low variability of obsidian groups from northern Neuquén; the Auca volca…
Middle Stone Age mineral pigment procurement at Pinnacle Point 5–6 North, Western Cape province, South Africa
We report on a multi‐method sourcing study of 35 mineral pigment artefacts from the Middle Stone Age site of Pinnacle Point 5–6 North (PP5–6 N), dating from about 90–50 ka. The artefacts were analysed and compared with geological samples from seven sources using neutron activation analysis (NAA), and supplemented by data from X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Our preliminary results suggest that the occupants of PP5–…
Iron oxide geochemistry in the Great Lakes Region (North America)
The Mielke Clovis Site (33SH26), Western Ohio, USA, Geochemical Sourcing, Technological Descriptions, Artifact Morphometrics, and Microwear
The Mielke site (33SH26) is a multicomponent locality in western Ohio, in an upland portion of the state that forms a drainage divide between the Great Lakes and Ohio River watersheds. The site possesses a prominent Clovis component that we describe here and assessed via test excavations, geochemical sourcing, technological descriptions, geometric morphometrics, microwear, and GIS analysis. Five different raw materials, whose outcrops are located…
Volcanic Ash Tempered Pottery Production in the Late to Terminal Classic Belize Valley, Belize
Production and consumption of pottery tempered with fresh volcanic ash peaked in the Late to Terminal Classic periods in the Maya lowlands. Differences in the type of volcanic inclusion and vessel form indicate that the pottery was produced in multiple locations by different groups of potters. In this article, we characterize pottery from household contexts at Baking Pot, Belize, using thin-section petrography and neutron activation analysis (NAA…
Entre el macizo del deseado y la margen norte de la cuenca del Río Santa Cruz (Patagonia, Argentina)
El objetivo de este trabajo es evaluar la posibilidad de la existencia de una fuente desconocida de obsidiana entre el sur del Macizo del Deseado y la margen norte de la cuenca del ro Santa Cruz (Patagonia, Argentina). La alta frecuencia de obsidiana en algunos sectores de este espacio y la mencin de pobladores locales acerca de la existencia de fuentes desconocidas hasta el momento llevaron a la necesidad de explorar esta hiptesis. Se realizaron…
Local production and long-distance trade of Islamic glazed ceramics in Central Asia
Picking up the pieces
This study compares chemical data of 224 sherds from Early Intermediate Period Huarpa and Middle Horizon Wari pottery to investigate settlement dynamics. All sherds were first identified stylistically and chronologically. Data from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) were combined and generated 11 chemically similar compositional groups (CGs). CGs are cultural artifacts of artisan ag…
Hope in Dirt
A 2018 workshop on the White Mountain Apache Tribe lands in Arizona examined ways to enhance investigations into cultural property crime (CPC) through applications of rapidly evolving methods from archaeological science. CPC (also looting, graverobbing) refers to unauthorized damage, removal, or trafficking in materials possessing blends of communal, aesthetic, and scientific values. The Fort Apache workshop integrated four generally partitioned …
Materials science insights into Indigenous rock art painters and ochre pigment materiality at Babine Lake, Canada
The Purísima Concepción Archaeological Project (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina) – An Interdisciplinary Approach
In January 1765, the Spanish merchant frigate Purísima Concepción went aground on the Atlantic coast of Tierra del Fuego while sailing along the Cape Horn route from Cádiz to Lima. The shipwreck survivors remained in the island for nearly three months, time devoted to the construction of another vessel while interacting peacefully with the native population. In view of the historical significance of this event, an archaeological project was condu…
Socioeconomic roles of Holocene marine shell beads reveal the daily life of composite objects from East Kalimantan, Borneo
Cultural objects composed of composite materials with differing physical properties are often differentially preserved in archaeological records favouring those materials less susceptible to taphonomic processes. Using microscopically observed wear patterns to decipher a model of socioeconomic roles for composite beaded objects, this study examines the rich marine shell bead assemblage excavated from Liang Jon in East Kalimantan, Borneo. Assessme…
Cobalt, lead, and borax
Pottery conveyance in North Patagonia, Argentina
Which town did it come from
Historical archaeologists working in the Middle Atlantic rarely use archaeometric techniques to source ceramics. Yet, there are several important research questions we can ask if we sourced more of our ceramics. This article presents the findings from a neutron activation analysis study that sourced 100 presumably locally-made vessels recovered from an early to mid-19 th century enslaved quartering site in the northern Shenandoah Valley determine…
Integrating a complex late prehistoric settlement system
Spatio-temporal distribution and consumption of local earthenwares from 19th-20th century Amedeka, Southeastern Ghana
Assemblage first
Geochemical characterization of ochre from central coastal British Columbia, Canada
Elemental Analysis of Ochre Outcrops in Southern British Columbia, Canada
Ochre is a red mineral pigment that was a key element of social and ceremonial practices among cultures of the P acific N orthwest C oast. It is recovered routinely from archaeological excavations, is visible as pigment for pictographs, and is described in the historical record as a trade item and component of ceremonial practices. Despite its ubiquity in the archaeological record, it is difficult to interpret its significance without first under…
Obsidian geochemistry, geoarchaeology, and lithic technology in northwestern Patagonia (Argentina)
Iron oxide geochemistry in the Great Lakes Region (North America)
Integrating a complex late prehistoric settlement system
Deconstructing a complex obsidian “source‐scape”
Northwestern Patagonia is located in a tectonically active part of the southern Andes (Argentina), which has facilitated the formation of obsidian, including pyroclastic deposits that have been affected by geomorphic processes, resulting in a complex obsidian landscape. To date, the geomorphic relocation of obsidian in the landscape has not been a focus of systematic research, and this hampers our understanding of prehistoric human mobility. We p…
Obsidiana Varvarco
En el norte neuquino existen depósitos piroclásticos que contienen nódulos de obsidianas. Las investigaciones en la región dieron a conocer las principales fuentes utilizadas por las poblaciones que allí habitaron. Para profundizar el conocimiento de cada fuente de obsidiana se adoptó un programa de estudio geoarqueológico y geoquímico. Así, se han descubierto nuevas ocurrencias de obsidianas, la más destacable de las cuales es la obsidiana Varva…
Local production and long-distance trade of Islamic glazed ceramics in Central Asia
A preliminary study on ochre sources in Southwestern Germany and its potential for ochre provenance during the Upper Paleolithic
Hope in Dirt
A 2018 workshop on the White Mountain Apache Tribe lands in Arizona examined ways to enhance investigations into cultural property crime (CPC) through applications of rapidly evolving methods from archaeological science. CPC (also looting, graverobbing) refers to unauthorized damage, removal, or trafficking in materials possessing blends of communal, aesthetic, and scientific values. The Fort Apache workshop integrated four generally partitioned …
Fade to Black
Pottery conveyance in North Patagonia, Argentina
Which town did it come from
Historical archaeologists working in the Middle Atlantic rarely use archaeometric techniques to source ceramics. Yet, there are several important research questions we can ask if we sourced more of our ceramics. This article presents the findings from a neutron activation analysis study that sourced 100 presumably locally-made vessels recovered from an early to mid-19 th century enslaved quartering site in the northern Shenandoah Valley determine…
Entre el macizo del deseado y la margen norte de la cuenca del Río Santa Cruz (Patagonia, Argentina)
El objetivo de este trabajo es evaluar la posibilidad de la existencia de una fuente desconocida de obsidiana entre el sur del Macizo del Deseado y la margen norte de la cuenca del ro Santa Cruz (Patagonia, Argentina). La alta frecuencia de obsidiana en algunos sectores de este espacio y la mencin de pobladores locales acerca de la existencia de fuentes desconocidas hasta el momento llevaron a la necesidad de explorar esta hiptesis. Se realizaron…
XRF obsidian analysis from Ayacucho Basin in Huamanga province, south‐eastern Peru
Obsidian was broadly used along the Andean Cordillera in South America. Particularly in Peru, its use can be traced to the earliest human occupations, continuously through pre‐Columbian times to contemporary Andean agro‐pastoralist societies. In order to distinguish the provenance of obsidians from Peru, this paper reports a new X‐ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis on several obsidians obtained in surface collections of the Ayacucho region. The anal…
Sources of obsidian artefacts, exchange networks and landscape use in Auca Mahuida (Neuquén, north‐western Patagonia)
The results of the X‐ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis of 59 obsidian samples from 11 archaeological sites in the Auca Mahuida region of north‐western Neuquén, Argentina, are present. They indicate that several obsidian sources were used; however, the intensities of their exploitation were variable. Strong differences appear between the Colorado River basin, characterized by a low variability of obsidian groups from northern Neuquén; the Auca volca…
Obsidian sources from the southern Andean highlands (Laguna del Diamante, Argentina and Chile)
The Nelson stone tool cache, North-Central Ohio, U.S.A
The Nelson stone tool cache was discovered in 2008 in Mount Vernon, Ohio. The cache does not include any diagnostic materials, and independent age control is unavailable. Although aspects of its 164 bifaces are suggestive of a Clovis affiliation – including the occasional occurrence of unmistakable flute scars – nearly all are in the early- to mid-stages of production, there are no definitive finished Clovis fluted points that would make it possi…
Sources, circulation, and use of obsidian in central Chile
Cobalt, lead, and borax
First large‐scale provenance study of pigments reveals new complex behavioural patterns during the Upper Palaeolithic of south‐western Germany
The use of red iron‐based earth pigments, or ochre, is a key component of early symbolic behaviours for anatomically modern humans and possibly Neanderthals. We present the first ochre provenance study in Central Europe showing long‐term selection strategies by inhabitants of cave sites in south‐western Germany during the Upper Palaeolithic (43–14.5 ka). Ochre artefacts from Hohle Fels, Geißenklösterle and Vogelherd, and local and extra‐local sou…
Crafting ceramics in the Panamanian chiefdoms
The Mielke Clovis Site (33SH26), Western Ohio, USA, Geochemical Sourcing, Technological Descriptions, Artifact Morphometrics, and Microwear
The Mielke site (33SH26) is a multicomponent locality in western Ohio, in an upland portion of the state that forms a drainage divide between the Great Lakes and Ohio River watersheds. The site possesses a prominent Clovis component that we describe here and assessed via test excavations, geochemical sourcing, technological descriptions, geometric morphometrics, microwear, and GIS analysis. Five different raw materials, whose outcrops are located…
Red pigment in the Central Plains
James Murie, early twentieth century ethnographer and member of the Pawnee Nation, once wrote that the "things that are most acceptable to the Pawnee gods are smoke, fat, paint, and flesh" (Murie 1981:466). Here we describe red paint at Kitkahahki Town, a late eighteenth–early nineteenth-century Kitkahahki Pawnee village in north-central Kansas. Using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy, we compare a…
Middle Stone Age mineral pigment procurement at Pinnacle Point 5–6 North, Western Cape province, South Africa
We report on a multi‐method sourcing study of 35 mineral pigment artefacts from the Middle Stone Age site of Pinnacle Point 5–6 North (PP5–6 N), dating from about 90–50 ka. The artefacts were analysed and compared with geological samples from seven sources using neutron activation analysis (NAA), and supplemented by data from X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Our preliminary results suggest that the occupants of PP5–…
Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (44 obras) · Archaeology (40 obras) · Geography (40 obras) · Geology (32 obras) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (23 obras) · Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis (18 obras) · Paleontology (17 obras) · Provenance (15 obras) · History (13 obras) · Pottery (11 obras)