K C Nolan
Biographic Data
| ID | 13394 |
|---|---|
| NAME | K C Nolan |
| GIVEN NAMES | K C |
| FAMILY NAME | Nolan |
| SIGNATURE | NOLAN K C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ball State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4390-5486 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 86 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Geochemistry, Geophysics, and Ritual at the Moorehead Circle
The Moorehead Circle is a unique Hopewellian (ca. AD 100 to AD 400) architectural and ritual activity area within the Fort Ancient earthwork (33WA2). Except for the artifacts and features associated with their mortuary program found in and below earthen mounds, most Hopewell ritual areas are virtually devoid of material remains. The data in this article demonstrate that many ritual activities may leave invisible traces. Measuring soil phosphate (…
An Elemental Analysis of Copper from the Mound City Group
The sourcing of exotic raw materials provides a window into the social networks of ancient peoples. Here we source copper from four archaeological contexts at the Mound City Group, a UNESCO World Heritage site and major Hopewell ceremonial site in south-central Ohio, USA. Results of laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry indicate the use of copper at Mound City from both the Great Lakes Copper District and the southern Appala…
Seek, and Ye Shall Find: The Rediscovery of Singapore, Michigan
Singapore, Michigan, was a small nineteenth-century lumber town situated on the north bank of the Kalamazoo River near its outlet to Lake Michigan. Nestled within a vegetated coastal dune field, Singapore enjoyed strong economic success in the mid-nineteenth century but was entirely abandoned by the turn of the twentieth century. Prevailing historical legend suggests that Singapore's dramatic downfall resulted from excessive clear-cutting of surr…
Morphometric Analysis of Allometry and Modularity in Early Holocene Thebes and St. Charles Points of Midcontinental North America
The Central Ohio Archaeological Digitization Survey (COADS) documented large samples of precontact artifacts, notably points, held by private collectors in south-central Ohio, in the United States. COADS captured two-dimensional images of several thousand points and several hundred three-dimensional images. Subjects were processed for landmark-based geometric morphometric (LGM) analysis as entire points and as stems only. Among other things, anal…
Original Design and Allometric Variation in Kirk Points of the Central Ohio Archaeological Digitization Survey
Building the Ohio Hopewell Chronology: An Incremental Approach to Historical Reckoning
Ohio Hopewell is an archaeological concept that is known worldwide but that suffers from 'a disarray of radiocarbon results' (Lynott 2015:60). Here, we establish a comprehensive dataset of 425 14C dates from Ohio Hopewell sites and apply formal chronometric hygiene criteria to all dates. We then iteratively assess the temporal placement and span of the six most important Ohio Hopewell sites-the Hopewell Mound Group, Liberty, Mound City, Seip, Tre…
The Central Ohio Archaeological Digitization Survey: A Demonstration of Amplified Public Good from Collaboration with Private Collectors
Significant parts of the archaeological record are in private hands, including those of responsible and responsive stewards (RRS). This is not necessarily a bad thing. The Central Ohio Archaeological Digitization Survey (COADS) engages RRS in collaborative study of central Ohio prehistory. COADS leverages the mass of RRS data constructively to add depth and breadth to a regional archaeological record. We recorded over 12,000 diagnostic points and…
Bringing archaeology into the information age: Entropy, noise, channel capacity, and information potential in archaeological significance assessments
Social network analysis and the social interactions that define Hopewell
Between approximately AD 1 and AD 400, the Scioto Valley of central Ohio was the core of a major American Indian phenomena known as Ohio Hopewell. The communities that made up this phenomenon constructed elaborate mounded landscapes, participated in continental social networks that brought exotic materials from the Great Lakes, the Gulf Coast, the Appalachians, and the Rocky Mountains to the Ohio Valley. Scales of participation range from the hou…
Copper as an essential and exotic Hopewell metal
An empirical evaluation of copper procurement and distribution: Elemental analysis of Scioto Valley Hopewell copper
Comment on Cook and Comstock's “Evaluating the Old Wood Problem in a Temperate Climate: A Fort Ancient Case Study“
In their recent report, Cook and Comstock (2014) purport to address the "old wood" problem in temperate eastern North America. Here we point out several interpretive and analytical errors in their work. We conclude that careful selection of wood charcoal for radiocarbon assay can result in accurate chronology for events of interest. However, this does not obviate the need to critically assess the extant database of wood charcoal dates in any chro…
Geochemical and geophysical prospecting at three multicomponent sites in the Southwestern Lake Erie Basin: A pilot study
A Late Woodland red ocher burial cache from Madison County, Ohio
An isolated human burial was discovered on a private property in Madison County, Ohio in the spring of 2009. The remains were recovered by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations and sent to The Ohio State University for analysis. We report the results of a generic descriptive analysis of the assemblage and remains. The individual was a robust young adult male, and the assemblage seemed typical of a terminal Archaic or Early Woodland period (1…
Prospecting for Prehistoric Gardens: Results of a Pilot Study
Non‐intensive agricultural systems leave little physical trace on the surface of the landscape. Geochemical analyses are useful in analysing known fields, but often cost‐prohibitive for prospection. A method of soil phosphate and magnetic susceptibility survey is proposed as a solution. Either or both soil characteristics should be altered by most agricultural systems. Anomalies in these two soil properties combined with archaeological data indic…
Temporal Hygiene: Problems in Cultural Chronology of the Late Prehistoric Period of the Middle Ohio River Valley
Radiocarbon dates are an independent source of data for constructing temporal relationships. Too often dates are shoehorned by preconceptions and hobbled by casual sample selection, reporting, and interpretation. Several authors have established quality-control criteria for evaluating and cleansing regional radiocarbon databases. Recent applications of such temporal hygiene practices in paleoecology and archaeology have resulted in significant re…
Phosphates, plowzones, and plazas: A minimally invasive approach to settlement structure of plowed village sites
A Critique of Late Prehistoric Systematics in the Middle Ohio River Valley
Most extant classification schemes for the Late Prehistoric period (LP) in the Middle Ohio River Valley (MORV) are typological and extensionally derived. Typological schemes create artificially sharp breaks among types. Implicitly constructed types rely on an essentialist ontology and a belief in a discoverable, emic reality. Most LP classificatory units in the MORV are inherited from James B. Griffin's early Culture-History work. These units, an…
Distributional Survey of the Reinhardt Site (33PI880), Pickaway County, Ohio: A Strategy for Deciphering the Community Structure of a Fort Ancient Village
There is currently a paucity of Fort Ancient sites with deciphered settlement structures. If settlement structure is reflective of social organization, then a larger sample of sites is needed to evaluate extant models of Fort Ancient social development. A distributional survey of the Reinhardt site, a Middle Fort Ancient habitation in the Middle Scioto Valley, Ohio is proposed as a model of efficient, multi-staged investigation that can aid in de…
An evolutionary model of social change in the Middle Ohio Valley: Was social complexity impossible during the late woodland but mandatory during the late prehistoric
Using Evolutionary Archaeology and Evolutionary Ecology to Explain Cultural Elaboration: The Case of Middle Ohio Valley Woodland Period Ceremonial Subsistence
We propose a Darwinian evolutionary model for the development and disappearance of Woodland period cultural elaboration in the Ohio River Valley, and specifically the “climax” of this behavior known as the Hopewell phenomenon. We combine aspects of evolutionary archaeology and evolutionary ecology to provide a model that (1) has testable empirical consequences, and (2) specifically addresses the historical context of development of the phenomenon…
Volatile Climate Conditions Cahokia: Comment on Benson, Pauketat and Cook 2009
The rapidly growing archaeological literature on Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) reconstructions (e.g., Benson et al. 2007; Cooper 2008; Stahle et al. 2007) demonstrates the significant gains that can be made in explaining cultural developments in prehistory when appropriate climate data are available. Benson et al. (2009) added to this literature with an analysis of the climatic conditions associated with peak social complexity in the Ameri…
Too Many People and Too Few Livestock in West Africa? An Evaluation of Sandford's Thesis
We examine whether Stephen Sandford's (2006b) 'too many people, too few livestock' thesis for the Greater Horn of Africa applies to West Africa. In a comparative study of seven pastoral systems across West Africa we found that pastoralists have generally successfully adapted to pressures on grazing resources. We describe three adaptive strategies: 1) integration and intensification in the Sudanian zone; 2) movement to the Sub-Humid zone; and 3) e…
Mars A Cosmic Stepping Stone: Uncovering Humanity's Cosmic Context
Spirit and Opportunity
Temporal Hygiene: Problems in Cultural Chronology of the Late Prehistoric Period of the Middle Ohio River Valley
Radiocarbon dates are an independent source of data for constructing temporal relationships. Too often dates are shoehorned by preconceptions and hobbled by casual sample selection, reporting, and interpretation. Several authors have established quality-control criteria for evaluating and cleansing regional radiocarbon databases. Recent applications of such temporal hygiene practices in paleoecology and archaeology have resulted in significant re…
Phosphates, plowzones, and plazas: A minimally invasive approach to settlement structure of plowed village sites
An empirical evaluation of copper procurement and distribution: Elemental analysis of Scioto Valley Hopewell copper
A Quantitative Analysis of Skill and Efficiency: Hopewell Blade Production at the Turner Workshop, Hamilton County, Ohio
We describe and analyze blade production at a small site near the Turner Earthworks, Hamilton County, Ohio. The Turner Workshop provides perhaps the largest sample of Ohio Hopewell (ca. A.D. 50–350) blades and blade-cores recovered from a single site to date. We focus on describing the production process at Turner and comparing our results with those from other Ohio Hopewell and nonHopewell blade production sites. Special attention will be focuse…
Copper as an essential and exotic Hopewell metal
Original Design and Allometric Variation in Kirk Points of the Central Ohio Archaeological Digitization Survey
Prospecting for Prehistoric Gardens: Results of a Pilot Study
Non‐intensive agricultural systems leave little physical trace on the surface of the landscape. Geochemical analyses are useful in analysing known fields, but often cost‐prohibitive for prospection. A method of soil phosphate and magnetic susceptibility survey is proposed as a solution. Either or both soil characteristics should be altered by most agricultural systems. Anomalies in these two soil properties combined with archaeological data indic…
Volatile Climate Conditions Cahokia: Comment on Benson, Pauketat and Cook 2009
The rapidly growing archaeological literature on Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) reconstructions (e.g., Benson et al. 2007; Cooper 2008; Stahle et al. 2007) demonstrates the significant gains that can be made in explaining cultural developments in prehistory when appropriate climate data are available. Benson et al. (2009) added to this literature with an analysis of the climatic conditions associated with peak social complexity in the Ameri…
Building the Ohio Hopewell Chronology: An Incremental Approach to Historical Reckoning
Ohio Hopewell is an archaeological concept that is known worldwide but that suffers from 'a disarray of radiocarbon results' (Lynott 2015:60). Here, we establish a comprehensive dataset of 425 14C dates from Ohio Hopewell sites and apply formal chronometric hygiene criteria to all dates. We then iteratively assess the temporal placement and span of the six most important Ohio Hopewell sites-the Hopewell Mound Group, Liberty, Mound City, Seip, Tre…
Geochemical and geophysical prospecting at three multicomponent sites in the Southwestern Lake Erie Basin: A pilot study
A Critique of Late Prehistoric Systematics in the Middle Ohio River Valley
Most extant classification schemes for the Late Prehistoric period (LP) in the Middle Ohio River Valley (MORV) are typological and extensionally derived. Typological schemes create artificially sharp breaks among types. Implicitly constructed types rely on an essentialist ontology and a belief in a discoverable, emic reality. Most LP classificatory units in the MORV are inherited from James B. Griffin's early Culture-History work. These units, an…
Distributional Survey of the Reinhardt Site (33PI880), Pickaway County, Ohio: A Strategy for Deciphering the Community Structure of a Fort Ancient Village
There is currently a paucity of Fort Ancient sites with deciphered settlement structures. If settlement structure is reflective of social organization, then a larger sample of sites is needed to evaluate extant models of Fort Ancient social development. A distributional survey of the Reinhardt site, a Middle Fort Ancient habitation in the Middle Scioto Valley, Ohio is proposed as a model of efficient, multi-staged investigation that can aid in de…
Using Evolutionary Archaeology and Evolutionary Ecology to Explain Cultural Elaboration: The Case of Middle Ohio Valley Woodland Period Ceremonial Subsistence
We propose a Darwinian evolutionary model for the development and disappearance of Woodland period cultural elaboration in the Ohio River Valley, and specifically the “climax” of this behavior known as the Hopewell phenomenon. We combine aspects of evolutionary archaeology and evolutionary ecology to provide a model that (1) has testable empirical consequences, and (2) specifically addresses the historical context of development of the phenomenon…
The Central Ohio Archaeological Digitization Survey: A Demonstration of Amplified Public Good from Collaboration with Private Collectors
Significant parts of the archaeological record are in private hands, including those of responsible and responsive stewards (RRS). This is not necessarily a bad thing. The Central Ohio Archaeological Digitization Survey (COADS) engages RRS in collaborative study of central Ohio prehistory. COADS leverages the mass of RRS data constructively to add depth and breadth to a regional archaeological record. We recorded over 12,000 diagnostic points and…
A Quantitative Analysis of Skill and Efficiency: Hopewell Blade Production at the Turner Workshop, Hamilton County, Ohio
We describe and analyze blade production at a small site near the Turner Earthworks, Hamilton County, Ohio. The Turner Workshop provides perhaps the largest sample of Ohio Hopewell (ca. A.D. 50–350) blades and blade-cores recovered from a single site to date. We focus on describing the production process at Turner and comparing our results with those from other Ohio Hopewell and nonHopewell blade production sites. Special attention will be focuse…
Mars A Cosmic Stepping Stone: Uncovering Humanity's Cosmic Context
Spirit and Opportunity
Too Many People and Too Few Livestock in West Africa? An Evaluation of Sandford's Thesis
We examine whether Stephen Sandford's (2006b) 'too many people, too few livestock' thesis for the Greater Horn of Africa applies to West Africa. In a comparative study of seven pastoral systems across West Africa we found that pastoralists have generally successfully adapted to pressures on grazing resources. We describe three adaptive strategies: 1) integration and intensification in the Sudanian zone; 2) movement to the Sub-Humid zone; and 3) e…
An evolutionary model of social change in the Middle Ohio Valley: Was social complexity impossible during the late woodland but mandatory during the late prehistoric
Using Evolutionary Archaeology and Evolutionary Ecology to Explain Cultural Elaboration: The Case of Middle Ohio Valley Woodland Period Ceremonial Subsistence
We propose a Darwinian evolutionary model for the development and disappearance of Woodland period cultural elaboration in the Ohio River Valley, and specifically the “climax” of this behavior known as the Hopewell phenomenon. We combine aspects of evolutionary archaeology and evolutionary ecology to provide a model that (1) has testable empirical consequences, and (2) specifically addresses the historical context of development of the phenomenon…
Volatile Climate Conditions Cahokia: Comment on Benson, Pauketat and Cook 2009
The rapidly growing archaeological literature on Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) reconstructions (e.g., Benson et al. 2007; Cooper 2008; Stahle et al. 2007) demonstrates the significant gains that can be made in explaining cultural developments in prehistory when appropriate climate data are available. Benson et al. (2009) added to this literature with an analysis of the climatic conditions associated with peak social complexity in the Ameri…
Phosphates, plowzones, and plazas: A minimally invasive approach to settlement structure of plowed village sites
A Critique of Late Prehistoric Systematics in the Middle Ohio River Valley
Most extant classification schemes for the Late Prehistoric period (LP) in the Middle Ohio River Valley (MORV) are typological and extensionally derived. Typological schemes create artificially sharp breaks among types. Implicitly constructed types rely on an essentialist ontology and a belief in a discoverable, emic reality. Most LP classificatory units in the MORV are inherited from James B. Griffin's early Culture-History work. These units, an…
Distributional Survey of the Reinhardt Site (33PI880), Pickaway County, Ohio: A Strategy for Deciphering the Community Structure of a Fort Ancient Village
There is currently a paucity of Fort Ancient sites with deciphered settlement structures. If settlement structure is reflective of social organization, then a larger sample of sites is needed to evaluate extant models of Fort Ancient social development. A distributional survey of the Reinhardt site, a Middle Fort Ancient habitation in the Middle Scioto Valley, Ohio is proposed as a model of efficient, multi-staged investigation that can aid in de…
Temporal Hygiene: Problems in Cultural Chronology of the Late Prehistoric Period of the Middle Ohio River Valley
Radiocarbon dates are an independent source of data for constructing temporal relationships. Too often dates are shoehorned by preconceptions and hobbled by casual sample selection, reporting, and interpretation. Several authors have established quality-control criteria for evaluating and cleansing regional radiocarbon databases. Recent applications of such temporal hygiene practices in paleoecology and archaeology have resulted in significant re…
Prospecting for Prehistoric Gardens: Results of a Pilot Study
Non‐intensive agricultural systems leave little physical trace on the surface of the landscape. Geochemical analyses are useful in analysing known fields, but often cost‐prohibitive for prospection. A method of soil phosphate and magnetic susceptibility survey is proposed as a solution. Either or both soil characteristics should be altered by most agricultural systems. Anomalies in these two soil properties combined with archaeological data indic…
Comment on Cook and Comstock's “Evaluating the Old Wood Problem in a Temperate Climate: A Fort Ancient Case Study“
In their recent report, Cook and Comstock (2014) purport to address the "old wood" problem in temperate eastern North America. Here we point out several interpretive and analytical errors in their work. We conclude that careful selection of wood charcoal for radiocarbon assay can result in accurate chronology for events of interest. However, this does not obviate the need to critically assess the extant database of wood charcoal dates in any chro…
Geochemical and geophysical prospecting at three multicomponent sites in the Southwestern Lake Erie Basin: A pilot study
A Late Woodland red ocher burial cache from Madison County, Ohio
An isolated human burial was discovered on a private property in Madison County, Ohio in the spring of 2009. The remains were recovered by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations and sent to The Ohio State University for analysis. We report the results of a generic descriptive analysis of the assemblage and remains. The individual was a robust young adult male, and the assemblage seemed typical of a terminal Archaic or Early Woodland period (1…
An empirical evaluation of copper procurement and distribution: Elemental analysis of Scioto Valley Hopewell copper
Copper as an essential and exotic Hopewell metal
Bringing archaeology into the information age: Entropy, noise, channel capacity, and information potential in archaeological significance assessments
Social network analysis and the social interactions that define Hopewell
Between approximately AD 1 and AD 400, the Scioto Valley of central Ohio was the core of a major American Indian phenomena known as Ohio Hopewell. The communities that made up this phenomenon constructed elaborate mounded landscapes, participated in continental social networks that brought exotic materials from the Great Lakes, the Gulf Coast, the Appalachians, and the Rocky Mountains to the Ohio Valley. Scales of participation range from the hou…
The Central Ohio Archaeological Digitization Survey: A Demonstration of Amplified Public Good from Collaboration with Private Collectors
Significant parts of the archaeological record are in private hands, including those of responsible and responsive stewards (RRS). This is not necessarily a bad thing. The Central Ohio Archaeological Digitization Survey (COADS) engages RRS in collaborative study of central Ohio prehistory. COADS leverages the mass of RRS data constructively to add depth and breadth to a regional archaeological record. We recorded over 12,000 diagnostic points and…
Original Design and Allometric Variation in Kirk Points of the Central Ohio Archaeological Digitization Survey
Building the Ohio Hopewell Chronology: An Incremental Approach to Historical Reckoning
Ohio Hopewell is an archaeological concept that is known worldwide but that suffers from 'a disarray of radiocarbon results' (Lynott 2015:60). Here, we establish a comprehensive dataset of 425 14C dates from Ohio Hopewell sites and apply formal chronometric hygiene criteria to all dates. We then iteratively assess the temporal placement and span of the six most important Ohio Hopewell sites-the Hopewell Mound Group, Liberty, Mound City, Seip, Tre…
Seek, and Ye Shall Find: The Rediscovery of Singapore, Michigan
Singapore, Michigan, was a small nineteenth-century lumber town situated on the north bank of the Kalamazoo River near its outlet to Lake Michigan. Nestled within a vegetated coastal dune field, Singapore enjoyed strong economic success in the mid-nineteenth century but was entirely abandoned by the turn of the twentieth century. Prevailing historical legend suggests that Singapore's dramatic downfall resulted from excessive clear-cutting of surr…
Morphometric Analysis of Allometry and Modularity in Early Holocene Thebes and St. Charles Points of Midcontinental North America
The Central Ohio Archaeological Digitization Survey (COADS) documented large samples of precontact artifacts, notably points, held by private collectors in south-central Ohio, in the United States. COADS captured two-dimensional images of several thousand points and several hundred three-dimensional images. Subjects were processed for landmark-based geometric morphometric (LGM) analysis as entire points and as stems only. Among other things, anal…
Geochemistry, Geophysics, and Ritual at the Moorehead Circle
The Moorehead Circle is a unique Hopewellian (ca. AD 100 to AD 400) architectural and ritual activity area within the Fort Ancient earthwork (33WA2). Except for the artifacts and features associated with their mortuary program found in and below earthen mounds, most Hopewell ritual areas are virtually devoid of material remains. The data in this article demonstrate that many ritual activities may leave invisible traces. Measuring soil phosphate (…
Archaeology (20 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (19 works) · Geography (19 works) · History (12 works) · Biology (9 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (9 works) · Prehistory (8 works) · Ecology (7 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (6 works) · History (6 works)