R G Matson
Biographic Data
| ID | 12505 |
|---|---|
| NAME | R G Matson |
| GIVEN NAMES | R G |
| FAMILY NAME | Matson |
| SIGNATURE | MATSON R G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of British Columbia |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6537-0841 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 330 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1974 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
The Evolution of Smoking and Intoxicant Plant Use in Ancient Northwestern North America - Corrigendum
The Evolution of Smoking and Intoxicant Plant Use in Ancient Northwestern North America
Smoking pipes discovered in archaeological contexts demonstrate that Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest of North America have practiced smoking for over 4,500 years. Archaeometry and ancient residue metabolomics provide evidence for the association of particular plants with these artifacts. In this article, we synthesize recent research on ancient smoking and present current knowledge on the spatiotemporal distribution of smoking in the …
Redefining the age of tattooing in western North America: A 2000-year-old artifact from Utah
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…
The Prehistory of the Northwest Coast
This volume provides a descriptive overview of the cultural complexity on the northwest coast that stretches from northern California to Alaska. Topics covered range from the earliest settlements to the subsequent cultural diversities in Native American populations. Maps, charts, and illustrations further enhance the book's interest and appeal
Cultural and Genetic Contexts for Early Turkey Domestication in the Northern Southwest
The turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) was independently domesticated in Mesoamerica and the Southwest, the latter as the only case of Native American animal domestication north of Mexico. In the upland (non-desert) portion of the American Southwest, distinctive closely related mtDNA lineages belonging to haplogroup H1 (thought to indicate domestication) occur from ca. 1 A.D. (Basketmaker II period) through early historic times. At many sites, low freq…
Short-term variability of human diet at Basketmaker II Turkey Pen Ruins, Utah: Insights from bulk and single amino acid isotope analysis of hair
The nutritional context of the Pueblo III depopulation of the northern San Juan: Too much maize
Dynamics of the Thirteenth-century Depopulation of the Northern San Juan: The View from Cedar Mesa
Tree-ring dates and ceramic seriations are used to refine the chronology of Pueblo depopulation of the Cedar Mesa-Natural Bridges area of southeastern Utah. The early to mid-1200s saw increased occupation in the canyons, but mesa settings continue to be inhabited throughout as well. Wood-cutting for construction tapers off in the 1250s and ends in the 1260s, well before the onset of 1276–1299 “great drought.” Factors contributing to the depopulat…
The Scars that Never Heal: Identifying Projectile Point Manufacturing Techniques from Flake Scars: A Case from Cedar Mesa, Utah
Geib has recently argued that there are major differences between the ways that Archaic and Basketmaker II (BM II) peoples made projectile points, namely that BM II peoples used indirect punches and wide compound pressure flakers to produce very thin, broad bifaces. We build on this analysis by measuring six attributes related to flake scar morphology on samples of Archaic and BM II bifaces from Cedar Mesa, Utah. The differences between the two g…
Stone-boiling maize with limestone: Experimental results and implications for nutrition among SE Utah preceramic groups
The use of multiple discriminant analysis in classifying prehistoric phytolith assemblages recovered from cooking residues
Emerging from the Mist: Studies in Northwest Coast Culture History
The Coast Salish House: Lessons from Shingle Point, Valdes Island, British Columbia
What Is Basketmaker Ii
The Basketmaker II culture is well known as a stage in the Pecos synthesis, but now it is understood to consist of a number of different cultural units, at least two different ethnicities, and to extend to a minimum of 900 years in different geographical areas. The term is also used in very different ways, resulting in confusion. The original stage definition is revisited, and the best known variants (White Dog, Lolomai, Grand Gulch, Durango, and…
The Late Archaic across the Borderlands: From Foraging to Farming
Why and when human societies shifted from nomadic hunting and gathering to settled agriculture engages the interest of scholars around the world. One of the most fruitful areas in which to study this issue is the North American Southwest, where Late Archaic inhabitants of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts of Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico turned to farming while their counterparts in Trans-Pecos and South Texas continued to forage. By investiga…
The Prehistory of the Northwest Coast
The Old Cordilleran Component at the Glenrose Cannery Site
Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopic Evidence on Basketmaker II Diet at Cedar Mesa, Utah
Since the early 1900s various estimates have been made about Anasazi diet, particularly regarding their use of maize. Stable-carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis on the bone gelatin from ten humans recovered from sites in the Cedar Mesa area of Utah (carbon isotope results for eight of them were reported in Matson and Chisholm 1991) indicates that both the Basketmaker II and Pueblo people in that area relied heavily on C4 plants, or C4- eating h…
Anomalous Basketmaker II Sites on Cedar Mesa: Not so Anomalous after All
In 1991 I investigated a series of Basketmaker II (BM II) sites on Cedar Mesa that had been located, mapped, collected, and classified during the Cedar Mesa Project of the 1970s, but were situated in unusual places, or in environmental locations that were similar to those in which late Archaic sites were reported elsewhere. Limited excavation showed that four sites were good BM II habitation sites, complete with pit houses, albeit in unique setti…
The origins of southwestern agriculture
Basketmaker II Subsistence: Carbon Isotopes and Other Dietary Indicators from Cedar Mesa, Utah
Four separate lines of evidence show that the Cedar Mesa Basketmaker II were dependent on maize horticulture: the settlement pattern of the mesa-top Basketmaker II; stable carbon-isotope analysis of Basketmaker and other skeletal remains from the Cedar Mesa area; and two different analyses of coprolites and midden constituents from the Turkey Pen Cave site (a Basketmaker II site in Grand Gulch, which drains parts of Cedar Mesa). All of these anal…
Adaptational Continuities and Occupational Discontinuities: The Cedar Mesa Anasazi
Survey of the Cedar Mesa areaSE Utah, has documented three main periods of Anasazi (ancestral Pueblo Indian) occupation: A. c. 200–400 (Basketmaker II); 650–725 (late Basketmaker III); and 1060–1270 (Pueblo II–III). These are separated by intervals of little or no occupation. Despite marked changes in material culture and architecture generally characteristic of the Anasazi sequence, the three Cedar Mesa occupations display similar patterns of se…
Research and Development in the Stone Age: Technological Transitions among Hunter-Gatherers [and Comments and Reply]
The transition from Pleistocene to Archaic/Mesolithic is analyzed in broad ecological terms. The trend throughout most of the Pleistocene toward increasing technological diversity is linked to the expectable ecological tendency to increase resource reliability. The advent of culture enabled man to increase resource reliability by diversifying his resource base. Resources were largely of the K-selected type, economical to procure with simple techn…
The Proper Place of Multivariate Techniques in Archaeology
The case made by Thomas (1978) for avoiding the use of multivariate techniques is critically reviewed. The purpose of these techniques and the nature of archaeological data are argued to be quite different from what he proposed
Descriptive Statements, Covering Laws, and Theories in Archaeology [and Comments and Reply]
The paradigm for explanation in archaeology presented by the "new archaeologists" is reviewed and shown to need further elaboration. It is argued that that presentation has overemphasized the form of explanatory arguments and insufficiently considered their content. Not all explanatory arguments provide intuitively satisfactory explanations of particular observations. Instead, intuitively satisfactory explanations require general theories which s…
Research and Development in the Stone Age: Technological Transitions among Hunter-Gatherers [and Comments and Reply]
The transition from Pleistocene to Archaic/Mesolithic is analyzed in broad ecological terms. The trend throughout most of the Pleistocene toward increasing technological diversity is linked to the expectable ecological tendency to increase resource reliability. The advent of culture enabled man to increase resource reliability by diversifying his resource base. Resources were largely of the K-selected type, economical to procure with simple techn…
Basketmaker II Subsistence: Carbon Isotopes and Other Dietary Indicators from Cedar Mesa, Utah
Four separate lines of evidence show that the Cedar Mesa Basketmaker II were dependent on maize horticulture: the settlement pattern of the mesa-top Basketmaker II; stable carbon-isotope analysis of Basketmaker and other skeletal remains from the Cedar Mesa area; and two different analyses of coprolites and midden constituents from the Turkey Pen Cave site (a Basketmaker II site in Grand Gulch, which drains parts of Cedar Mesa). All of these anal…
The origins of southwestern agriculture
Adaptational Continuities and Occupational Discontinuities: The Cedar Mesa Anasazi
Survey of the Cedar Mesa areaSE Utah, has documented three main periods of Anasazi (ancestral Pueblo Indian) occupation: A. c. 200–400 (Basketmaker II); 650–725 (late Basketmaker III); and 1060–1270 (Pueblo II–III). These are separated by intervals of little or no occupation. Despite marked changes in material culture and architecture generally characteristic of the Anasazi sequence, the three Cedar Mesa occupations display similar patterns of se…
Cultural and Genetic Contexts for Early Turkey Domestication in the Northern Southwest
The turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) was independently domesticated in Mesoamerica and the Southwest, the latter as the only case of Native American animal domestication north of Mexico. In the upland (non-desert) portion of the American Southwest, distinctive closely related mtDNA lineages belonging to haplogroup H1 (thought to indicate domestication) occur from ca. 1 A.D. (Basketmaker II period) through early historic times. At many sites, low freq…
Stone-boiling maize with limestone: Experimental results and implications for nutrition among SE Utah preceramic groups
Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopic Evidence on Basketmaker II Diet at Cedar Mesa, Utah
Since the early 1900s various estimates have been made about Anasazi diet, particularly regarding their use of maize. Stable-carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis on the bone gelatin from ten humans recovered from sites in the Cedar Mesa area of Utah (carbon isotope results for eight of them were reported in Matson and Chisholm 1991) indicates that both the Basketmaker II and Pueblo people in that area relied heavily on C4 plants, or C4- eating h…
What Is Basketmaker Ii
The Basketmaker II culture is well known as a stage in the Pecos synthesis, but now it is understood to consist of a number of different cultural units, at least two different ethnicities, and to extend to a minimum of 900 years in different geographical areas. The term is also used in very different ways, resulting in confusion. The original stage definition is revisited, and the best known variants (White Dog, Lolomai, Grand Gulch, Durango, and…
The use of multiple discriminant analysis in classifying prehistoric phytolith assemblages recovered from cooking residues
The nutritional context of the Pueblo III depopulation of the northern San Juan: Too much maize
Anomalous Basketmaker II Sites on Cedar Mesa: Not so Anomalous after All
In 1991 I investigated a series of Basketmaker II (BM II) sites on Cedar Mesa that had been located, mapped, collected, and classified during the Cedar Mesa Project of the 1970s, but were situated in unusual places, or in environmental locations that were similar to those in which late Archaic sites were reported elsewhere. Limited excavation showed that four sites were good BM II habitation sites, complete with pit houses, albeit in unique setti…
Site Relationships at Quebrada Tarapaca, Chile: A Comparison of Clustering and Scaling Techniques
This study is a comparison of the results of a variety of clustering methods and 2 multidimensional scaling techniques on data from sites in northern Chile. While differences do occur, the similarities among the results are strong in spite of differing inputs. In general, results of relative frequency analysis appear to be superior to those of presence/absence, and the techniques used seem to be viable additions to existing archaeological tools
Descriptive Statements, Covering Laws, and Theories in Archaeology [and Comments and Reply]
The paradigm for explanation in archaeology presented by the "new archaeologists" is reviewed and shown to need further elaboration. It is argued that that presentation has overemphasized the form of explanatory arguments and insufficiently considered their content. Not all explanatory arguments provide intuitively satisfactory explanations of particular observations. Instead, intuitively satisfactory explanations require general theories which s…
Dynamics of the Thirteenth-century Depopulation of the Northern San Juan: The View from Cedar Mesa
Tree-ring dates and ceramic seriations are used to refine the chronology of Pueblo depopulation of the Cedar Mesa-Natural Bridges area of southeastern Utah. The early to mid-1200s saw increased occupation in the canyons, but mesa settings continue to be inhabited throughout as well. Wood-cutting for construction tapers off in the 1250s and ends in the 1260s, well before the onset of 1276–1299 “great drought.” Factors contributing to the depopulat…
The Prehistory of the Northwest Coast
This volume provides a descriptive overview of the cultural complexity on the northwest coast that stretches from northern California to Alaska. Topics covered range from the earliest settlements to the subsequent cultural diversities in Native American populations. Maps, charts, and illustrations further enhance the book's interest and appeal
Short-term variability of human diet at Basketmaker II Turkey Pen Ruins, Utah: Insights from bulk and single amino acid isotope analysis of hair
The Evolution of Smoking and Intoxicant Plant Use in Ancient Northwestern North America
Smoking pipes discovered in archaeological contexts demonstrate that Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest of North America have practiced smoking for over 4,500 years. Archaeometry and ancient residue metabolomics provide evidence for the association of particular plants with these artifacts. In this article, we synthesize recent research on ancient smoking and present current knowledge on the spatiotemporal distribution of smoking in the …
Redefining the age of tattooing in western North America: A 2000-year-old artifact from Utah
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…
The Prehistory of the Northwest Coast
The Scars that Never Heal: Identifying Projectile Point Manufacturing Techniques from Flake Scars: A Case from Cedar Mesa, Utah
Geib has recently argued that there are major differences between the ways that Archaic and Basketmaker II (BM II) peoples made projectile points, namely that BM II peoples used indirect punches and wide compound pressure flakers to produce very thin, broad bifaces. We build on this analysis by measuring six attributes related to flake scar morphology on samples of Archaic and BM II bifaces from Cedar Mesa, Utah. The differences between the two g…
Site Relationships at Quebrada Tarapaca, Chile: A Comparison of Clustering and Scaling Techniques
This study is a comparison of the results of a variety of clustering methods and 2 multidimensional scaling techniques on data from sites in northern Chile. While differences do occur, the similarities among the results are strong in spite of differing inputs. In general, results of relative frequency analysis appear to be superior to those of presence/absence, and the techniques used seem to be viable additions to existing archaeological tools
Descriptive Statements, Covering Laws, and Theories in Archaeology [and Comments and Reply]
The paradigm for explanation in archaeology presented by the "new archaeologists" is reviewed and shown to need further elaboration. It is argued that that presentation has overemphasized the form of explanatory arguments and insufficiently considered their content. Not all explanatory arguments provide intuitively satisfactory explanations of particular observations. Instead, intuitively satisfactory explanations require general theories which s…
The Proper Place of Multivariate Techniques in Archaeology
The case made by Thomas (1978) for avoiding the use of multivariate techniques is critically reviewed. The purpose of these techniques and the nature of archaeological data are argued to be quite different from what he proposed
Research and Development in the Stone Age: Technological Transitions among Hunter-Gatherers [and Comments and Reply]
The transition from Pleistocene to Archaic/Mesolithic is analyzed in broad ecological terms. The trend throughout most of the Pleistocene toward increasing technological diversity is linked to the expectable ecological tendency to increase resource reliability. The advent of culture enabled man to increase resource reliability by diversifying his resource base. Resources were largely of the K-selected type, economical to procure with simple techn…
Adaptational Continuities and Occupational Discontinuities: The Cedar Mesa Anasazi
Survey of the Cedar Mesa areaSE Utah, has documented three main periods of Anasazi (ancestral Pueblo Indian) occupation: A. c. 200–400 (Basketmaker II); 650–725 (late Basketmaker III); and 1060–1270 (Pueblo II–III). These are separated by intervals of little or no occupation. Despite marked changes in material culture and architecture generally characteristic of the Anasazi sequence, the three Cedar Mesa occupations display similar patterns of se…
The origins of southwestern agriculture
Basketmaker II Subsistence: Carbon Isotopes and Other Dietary Indicators from Cedar Mesa, Utah
Four separate lines of evidence show that the Cedar Mesa Basketmaker II were dependent on maize horticulture: the settlement pattern of the mesa-top Basketmaker II; stable carbon-isotope analysis of Basketmaker and other skeletal remains from the Cedar Mesa area; and two different analyses of coprolites and midden constituents from the Turkey Pen Cave site (a Basketmaker II site in Grand Gulch, which drains parts of Cedar Mesa). All of these anal…
Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopic Evidence on Basketmaker II Diet at Cedar Mesa, Utah
Since the early 1900s various estimates have been made about Anasazi diet, particularly regarding their use of maize. Stable-carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis on the bone gelatin from ten humans recovered from sites in the Cedar Mesa area of Utah (carbon isotope results for eight of them were reported in Matson and Chisholm 1991) indicates that both the Basketmaker II and Pueblo people in that area relied heavily on C4 plants, or C4- eating h…
Anomalous Basketmaker II Sites on Cedar Mesa: Not so Anomalous after All
In 1991 I investigated a series of Basketmaker II (BM II) sites on Cedar Mesa that had been located, mapped, collected, and classified during the Cedar Mesa Project of the 1970s, but were situated in unusual places, or in environmental locations that were similar to those in which late Archaic sites were reported elsewhere. Limited excavation showed that four sites were good BM II habitation sites, complete with pit houses, albeit in unique setti…
The Old Cordilleran Component at the Glenrose Cannery Site
The Prehistory of the Northwest Coast
The Late Archaic across the Borderlands: From Foraging to Farming
Why and when human societies shifted from nomadic hunting and gathering to settled agriculture engages the interest of scholars around the world. One of the most fruitful areas in which to study this issue is the North American Southwest, where Late Archaic inhabitants of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts of Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico turned to farming while their counterparts in Trans-Pecos and South Texas continued to forage. By investiga…
What Is Basketmaker Ii
The Basketmaker II culture is well known as a stage in the Pecos synthesis, but now it is understood to consist of a number of different cultural units, at least two different ethnicities, and to extend to a minimum of 900 years in different geographical areas. The term is also used in very different ways, resulting in confusion. The original stage definition is revisited, and the best known variants (White Dog, Lolomai, Grand Gulch, Durango, and…
Emerging from the Mist: Studies in Northwest Coast Culture History
The Coast Salish House: Lessons from Shingle Point, Valdes Island, British Columbia
The use of multiple discriminant analysis in classifying prehistoric phytolith assemblages recovered from cooking residues
Stone-boiling maize with limestone: Experimental results and implications for nutrition among SE Utah preceramic groups
The Scars that Never Heal: Identifying Projectile Point Manufacturing Techniques from Flake Scars: A Case from Cedar Mesa, Utah
Geib has recently argued that there are major differences between the ways that Archaic and Basketmaker II (BM II) peoples made projectile points, namely that BM II peoples used indirect punches and wide compound pressure flakers to produce very thin, broad bifaces. We build on this analysis by measuring six attributes related to flake scar morphology on samples of Archaic and BM II bifaces from Cedar Mesa, Utah. The differences between the two g…
Short-term variability of human diet at Basketmaker II Turkey Pen Ruins, Utah: Insights from bulk and single amino acid isotope analysis of hair
The nutritional context of the Pueblo III depopulation of the northern San Juan: Too much maize
Dynamics of the Thirteenth-century Depopulation of the Northern San Juan: The View from Cedar Mesa
Tree-ring dates and ceramic seriations are used to refine the chronology of Pueblo depopulation of the Cedar Mesa-Natural Bridges area of southeastern Utah. The early to mid-1200s saw increased occupation in the canyons, but mesa settings continue to be inhabited throughout as well. Wood-cutting for construction tapers off in the 1250s and ends in the 1260s, well before the onset of 1276–1299 “great drought.” Factors contributing to the depopulat…
The Prehistory of the Northwest Coast
This volume provides a descriptive overview of the cultural complexity on the northwest coast that stretches from northern California to Alaska. Topics covered range from the earliest settlements to the subsequent cultural diversities in Native American populations. Maps, charts, and illustrations further enhance the book's interest and appeal
Cultural and Genetic Contexts for Early Turkey Domestication in the Northern Southwest
The turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) was independently domesticated in Mesoamerica and the Southwest, the latter as the only case of Native American animal domestication north of Mexico. In the upland (non-desert) portion of the American Southwest, distinctive closely related mtDNA lineages belonging to haplogroup H1 (thought to indicate domestication) occur from ca. 1 A.D. (Basketmaker II period) through early historic times. At many sites, low freq…
Redefining the age of tattooing in western North America: A 2000-year-old artifact from Utah
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…
The Evolution of Smoking and Intoxicant Plant Use in Ancient Northwestern North America - Corrigendum
Archaeology (20 works) · Geography (20 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (16 works) · Biology (8 works) · History (7 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (7 works) · Ecology (6 works) · Geology (5 works) · Isotope Analysis in Ecology (5 works) · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (5 works)