William R Hildebrandt
Biographic Data
| ID | 164716 |
|---|---|
| NAME | William R Hildebrandt |
| GIVEN NAMES | William R |
| FAMILY NAME | Hildebrandt |
| SIGNATURE | HILDEBRANDT W R |
| AFFILIATIONS | American Anthropological Association |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 339 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 26 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
G. James (Jim) West (1944–2024)
Postcontact Cultural Perseverance on the Central California Coast
Indigenous people throughout North America were dramatically affected by the invasion of European colonizers. Growing evidence suggests that, among many strategies for survival and perseverance, increased sedentism was common; it often resulted from either forced resettlement or attempts to access European resources. We present artifactual, paleoethnobotanical, and faunal findings from the yak tichu tichu yak tilhini northern Chumash village of T…
Richard A. Gould (1939–2020)
Richard Gould, Professor Emeritus at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, passed away last year at the age of 81. He was a world-renowned archaeologist, making major contributions to the f
Style, identity, and resource competition on the border
The Prehistory of Morro Bay
Allika Ruby (1969–2017)
Allika Ruby at Altono Bajo. Photograph courtesy of Jerry Doty.Allika Ruby died of cancer in Winters, California, on 25 October 2017. She was only 48 years old. She leaves behind her husband and fel
At the vanishing point
This volume presents the results of data recovery excavations directed at prehistoric archaeological deposits located near Sulphur Springs, along the southeastern margin of the Black Rock Desert, in Humboldt and Pershing counties, Nevada. Although 20 sites with prehistoric assemblages were identified during this project, intact spatio-temporal components were found at only seven of these sites, of which just five were the focus of intensive data …
Tufa Village (Nevada)
The Morro Bay Fauna
A robust collection of mammal, bird, fish, and shellfish remains from an 8,000-year residential sequence at Morro Bay, a small, isolated estuary on the central California coast, shows a strong focus on marine species during the Middle-Late Transition cultural phase (950-700 cal B.P.), which largely coincides with the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (MCA). Previous studies have provided modest evidence for increased fishing and rabbit hunting during the…
News and Notes
Prehistory of Nevada's northern tier
Rock Country, Upper Lahontan Basin, Upper Humboldt Plains, and Thousand Springs Valley (fig.2).None of these regions have significant stands of pinyon, major watercourses, or extensive wetland areas.Despite the lack of these habitats, which were so critical to ethnographic groups living in the more southerly, core areas of the Great Basin, the project corridor was used by many people throughout the prehistoric past.These occupations were not cons…
Large-Game Hunting in the American West
Fisher's (2015) reanalysis of data presented by Hildebrandt and McGuire (2002) fails to include the original finding that the Middle Archaic was the trans-Holocene high-point of large-game hunting in southeastern California, nor does his reliance on climatic change contribute anything new to the ascendance of hunting debate
Where the Pavement Ends
Red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) is a common constituent in coastal middens south of San Francisco Bay and was such an important part of the diet there that red abalone middens or pavements are the most common site type in some areas at various periods in prehistory. The record north of San Francisco Bay stands in stark contrast—abalone are all but absent even in rich shell midden deposits. We explore four possible explanations for the lack of re…
Identifying Dart and Arrow Points in the Great Basin
Smith et al. (2013) provided important new information concerning the ages of a variety of projectile point types found in the Great Basin. Two of their interpretations, however, deserve further discussion. Smith et al. (2013) concluded that the Nicholarsen (or Nicolarsen) Cache contains both dart and arrow points. However, our application of methods developed by Hildebrandt and King (2012) to distinguish dart and arrow points, indicates that the…
The Prehistory of Gold Butte
"The Prehistory of Gold Butte uses a theoretical perspective rooted in human behavior ecology and other foraging models to present the results of one of the largest and most comprehensive archaeological investigations ever undertaken in southern Nevada, involving the systematic survey of more than 31,000 acres, the documentation of more than 377 sites, and the excavation of nine prehistoric sites. Gold Butte--at the crossroads of the Mojave Deser…
Distinguishing Between Darts and Arrows in the Archaeological Record
We propose a new method for differentiating archaeological atlatl darts from arrow points. Our dart-arrow index accurately distinguishes known (hafted) archaeological examples of darts and arrows. We find that ethnographic collections of hafted arrows used by previous researchers are problematic, and should not be used as control samples for differentiating darts from arrows. We use the dart-arrow index to reassess the projectile points described…
Where were the northern elephant seals? Holocene archaeology and biogeography of Mirounga angustirostris
Driven to the brink of extinction during the nineteenth century commercial fur and oil trade, northern elephant seal (NES, Mirounga angustirostris) populations now exceed 100 000 animals in the northeast Pacific from Alaska to Baja California. Because little is known about the biogeography and ecology of NES prior to the mid-nineteenth century, we synthesize and analyze the occurrence of NES remains in North American archaeological sites. Compari…
Setting the Record Straight
Human Behavioral Ecology and Historical Contingency
Using data from a single site along the central California coast (CA-SLO-2), Jones et al. (2008) critique our use of human behavioral ecology to explain changing hunting and fishing adaptations in prehistoric California and the Great Basin. Instead, they argue that human adaptations tend to stay relatively stable over time until they are influenced by historical contingencies. We question the utility of using data from a single site, and expand t…
California Indians and their Environment
(2009). California Indians and their Environment: An Introduction, by Kent G. Lightfoot and Otis Parrish. California Archaeology: Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 293-295
Shellfish Transport, Caloric Return Rates, and Prehistoric Feasting on the Laguna De Santa Rosa, Alta California
Archaeological data from several sites along the Laguna de Santa Rosa in Sonoma County, California, show that marine shellfish were transported more than 25 km to the interior beginning about 2,600 years ago. Initiation of this activity seems to be linked to the rise of logistical organization associated with the more settled lifestyles of the Middle Archaic Berkeley Pattern. Analysis of energetic return rates for obtaining and transporting these…
Costly Signaling and the Ascendance of No-Can-Do Archaeology
While providing a review of some of the ethnographic literature surrounding hunting and Costly Signaling Theory, Codding and Jones offer no alternative framework for how this emerging theoretical approach might be applied to the archaeological record. In their view, Costly Signaling Theory lies beyond the pale of current archaeological inquiry, or at least our conception of it. We respond to this characterization by providing a specific methodolo…
Re-Thinking Great Basin Foragers
Over the last several decades, there has been an increasingly robust body of ethnographic research indicating that the sharing of meat is strongly linked to the fitness pursuits of individuals, where successful male hunters achieve various forms of prestige that ultimately lead to greater reproductive success. We argue that the effects of prestige hunting and other similar displays can be traced archaeologically in subsistence, settlement, and ma…
Large-Game Hunting, Gender-Differentiated Work Organization, and the Role of Evolutionary Ecology in California and Great Basin Prehistory
We are pleased that Broughton and Bayham acknowledge that there was an increase in large-game hunting during the Middle Archaic (ca. 4000-1000 B.P.) in California and the Great Basin that reached proportions greater than any other interval during the Holocene. They argue, however, that this was simply the result of changing climatic conditions, and that the larger social context of hunting plays little or no role in this development. The followin…
The Ascendance of Hunting during the California Middle Archaic
Against a backdrop of sustained resource intensification and population increases that began at the end of the middle Holocene in California and continued until at least 1000 B.P., there is a variety of archaeological evidence indicating that hunting of highly ranked large mammals actually increased during this time. This trend runs counter to general expectations set forth by optimal-foraging and diet-breadth models, and suggests that the role o…
Evolution of marine mammal hunting
The Ascendance of Hunting during the California Middle Archaic
Against a backdrop of sustained resource intensification and population increases that began at the end of the middle Holocene in California and continued until at least 1000 B.P., there is a variety of archaeological evidence indicating that hunting of highly ranked large mammals actually increased during this time. This trend runs counter to general expectations set forth by optimal-foraging and diet-breadth models, and suggests that the role o…
Re-Thinking Great Basin Foragers
Over the last several decades, there has been an increasingly robust body of ethnographic research indicating that the sharing of meat is strongly linked to the fitness pursuits of individuals, where successful male hunters achieve various forms of prestige that ultimately lead to greater reproductive success. We argue that the effects of prestige hunting and other similar displays can be traced archaeologically in subsistence, settlement, and ma…
Reasserting a Prehistoric Tragedy of the Commons
Distinguishing Between Darts and Arrows in the Archaeological Record
We propose a new method for differentiating archaeological atlatl darts from arrow points. Our dart-arrow index accurately distinguishes known (hafted) archaeological examples of darts and arrows. We find that ethnographic collections of hafted arrows used by previous researchers are problematic, and should not be used as control samples for differentiating darts from arrows. We use the dart-arrow index to reassess the projectile points described…
Costly Signaling and the Ascendance of No-Can-Do Archaeology
While providing a review of some of the ethnographic literature surrounding hunting and Costly Signaling Theory, Codding and Jones offer no alternative framework for how this emerging theoretical approach might be applied to the archaeological record. In their view, Costly Signaling Theory lies beyond the pale of current archaeological inquiry, or at least our conception of it. We respond to this characterization by providing a specific methodolo…
Large-Game Hunting, Gender-Differentiated Work Organization, and the Role of Evolutionary Ecology in California and Great Basin Prehistory
We are pleased that Broughton and Bayham acknowledge that there was an increase in large-game hunting during the Middle Archaic (ca. 4000-1000 B.P.) in California and the Great Basin that reached proportions greater than any other interval during the Holocene. They argue, however, that this was simply the result of changing climatic conditions, and that the larger social context of hunting plays little or no role in this development. The followin…
Prehistory of Nevada's northern tier
Rock Country, Upper Lahontan Basin, Upper Humboldt Plains, and Thousand Springs Valley (fig.2).None of these regions have significant stands of pinyon, major watercourses, or extensive wetland areas.Despite the lack of these habitats, which were so critical to ethnographic groups living in the more southerly, core areas of the Great Basin, the project corridor was used by many people throughout the prehistoric past.These occupations were not cons…
Where were the northern elephant seals? Holocene archaeology and biogeography of Mirounga angustirostris
Driven to the brink of extinction during the nineteenth century commercial fur and oil trade, northern elephant seal (NES, Mirounga angustirostris) populations now exceed 100 000 animals in the northeast Pacific from Alaska to Baja California. Because little is known about the biogeography and ecology of NES prior to the mid-nineteenth century, we synthesize and analyze the occurrence of NES remains in North American archaeological sites. Compari…
Identifying Dart and Arrow Points in the Great Basin
Smith et al. (2013) provided important new information concerning the ages of a variety of projectile point types found in the Great Basin. Two of their interpretations, however, deserve further discussion. Smith et al. (2013) concluded that the Nicholarsen (or Nicolarsen) Cache contains both dart and arrow points. However, our application of methods developed by Hildebrandt and King (2012) to distinguish dart and arrow points, indicates that the…
Human Behavioral Ecology and Historical Contingency
Using data from a single site along the central California coast (CA-SLO-2), Jones et al. (2008) critique our use of human behavioral ecology to explain changing hunting and fishing adaptations in prehistoric California and the Great Basin. Instead, they argue that human adaptations tend to stay relatively stable over time until they are influenced by historical contingencies. We question the utility of using data from a single site, and expand t…
Tufa Village (Nevada)
Where the Pavement Ends
Red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) is a common constituent in coastal middens south of San Francisco Bay and was such an important part of the diet there that red abalone middens or pavements are the most common site type in some areas at various periods in prehistory. The record north of San Francisco Bay stands in stark contrast—abalone are all but absent even in rich shell midden deposits. We explore four possible explanations for the lack of re…
Postcontact Cultural Perseverance on the Central California Coast
Indigenous people throughout North America were dramatically affected by the invasion of European colonizers. Growing evidence suggests that, among many strategies for survival and perseverance, increased sedentism was common; it often resulted from either forced resettlement or attempts to access European resources. We present artifactual, paleoethnobotanical, and faunal findings from the yak tichu tichu yak tilhini northern Chumash village of T…
The Prehistory of Morro Bay
The Morro Bay Fauna
A robust collection of mammal, bird, fish, and shellfish remains from an 8,000-year residential sequence at Morro Bay, a small, isolated estuary on the central California coast, shows a strong focus on marine species during the Middle-Late Transition cultural phase (950-700 cal B.P.), which largely coincides with the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (MCA). Previous studies have provided modest evidence for increased fishing and rabbit hunting during the…
Shellfish Transport, Caloric Return Rates, and Prehistoric Feasting on the Laguna De Santa Rosa, Alta California
Archaeological data from several sites along the Laguna de Santa Rosa in Sonoma County, California, show that marine shellfish were transported more than 25 km to the interior beginning about 2,600 years ago. Initiation of this activity seems to be linked to the rise of logistical organization associated with the more settled lifestyles of the Middle Archaic Berkeley Pattern. Analysis of energetic return rates for obtaining and transporting these…
Evolution of marine mammal hunting
Reasserting a Prehistoric Tragedy of the Commons
The Ascendance of Hunting during the California Middle Archaic
Against a backdrop of sustained resource intensification and population increases that began at the end of the middle Holocene in California and continued until at least 1000 B.P., there is a variety of archaeological evidence indicating that hunting of highly ranked large mammals actually increased during this time. This trend runs counter to general expectations set forth by optimal-foraging and diet-breadth models, and suggests that the role o…
Large-Game Hunting, Gender-Differentiated Work Organization, and the Role of Evolutionary Ecology in California and Great Basin Prehistory
We are pleased that Broughton and Bayham acknowledge that there was an increase in large-game hunting during the Middle Archaic (ca. 4000-1000 B.P.) in California and the Great Basin that reached proportions greater than any other interval during the Holocene. They argue, however, that this was simply the result of changing climatic conditions, and that the larger social context of hunting plays little or no role in this development. The followin…
Re-Thinking Great Basin Foragers
Over the last several decades, there has been an increasingly robust body of ethnographic research indicating that the sharing of meat is strongly linked to the fitness pursuits of individuals, where successful male hunters achieve various forms of prestige that ultimately lead to greater reproductive success. We argue that the effects of prestige hunting and other similar displays can be traced archaeologically in subsistence, settlement, and ma…
Costly Signaling and the Ascendance of No-Can-Do Archaeology
While providing a review of some of the ethnographic literature surrounding hunting and Costly Signaling Theory, Codding and Jones offer no alternative framework for how this emerging theoretical approach might be applied to the archaeological record. In their view, Costly Signaling Theory lies beyond the pale of current archaeological inquiry, or at least our conception of it. We respond to this characterization by providing a specific methodolo…
California Indians and their Environment
(2009). California Indians and their Environment: An Introduction, by Kent G. Lightfoot and Otis Parrish. California Archaeology: Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 293-295
Shellfish Transport, Caloric Return Rates, and Prehistoric Feasting on the Laguna De Santa Rosa, Alta California
Archaeological data from several sites along the Laguna de Santa Rosa in Sonoma County, California, show that marine shellfish were transported more than 25 km to the interior beginning about 2,600 years ago. Initiation of this activity seems to be linked to the rise of logistical organization associated with the more settled lifestyles of the Middle Archaic Berkeley Pattern. Analysis of energetic return rates for obtaining and transporting these…
Setting the Record Straight
Human Behavioral Ecology and Historical Contingency
Using data from a single site along the central California coast (CA-SLO-2), Jones et al. (2008) critique our use of human behavioral ecology to explain changing hunting and fishing adaptations in prehistoric California and the Great Basin. Instead, they argue that human adaptations tend to stay relatively stable over time until they are influenced by historical contingencies. We question the utility of using data from a single site, and expand t…
Where were the northern elephant seals? Holocene archaeology and biogeography of Mirounga angustirostris
Driven to the brink of extinction during the nineteenth century commercial fur and oil trade, northern elephant seal (NES, Mirounga angustirostris) populations now exceed 100 000 animals in the northeast Pacific from Alaska to Baja California. Because little is known about the biogeography and ecology of NES prior to the mid-nineteenth century, we synthesize and analyze the occurrence of NES remains in North American archaeological sites. Compari…
Distinguishing Between Darts and Arrows in the Archaeological Record
We propose a new method for differentiating archaeological atlatl darts from arrow points. Our dart-arrow index accurately distinguishes known (hafted) archaeological examples of darts and arrows. We find that ethnographic collections of hafted arrows used by previous researchers are problematic, and should not be used as control samples for differentiating darts from arrows. We use the dart-arrow index to reassess the projectile points described…
The Prehistory of Gold Butte
"The Prehistory of Gold Butte uses a theoretical perspective rooted in human behavior ecology and other foraging models to present the results of one of the largest and most comprehensive archaeological investigations ever undertaken in southern Nevada, involving the systematic survey of more than 31,000 acres, the documentation of more than 377 sites, and the excavation of nine prehistoric sites. Gold Butte--at the crossroads of the Mojave Deser…
Identifying Dart and Arrow Points in the Great Basin
Smith et al. (2013) provided important new information concerning the ages of a variety of projectile point types found in the Great Basin. Two of their interpretations, however, deserve further discussion. Smith et al. (2013) concluded that the Nicholarsen (or Nicolarsen) Cache contains both dart and arrow points. However, our application of methods developed by Hildebrandt and King (2012) to distinguish dart and arrow points, indicates that the…
Where the Pavement Ends
Red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) is a common constituent in coastal middens south of San Francisco Bay and was such an important part of the diet there that red abalone middens or pavements are the most common site type in some areas at various periods in prehistory. The record north of San Francisco Bay stands in stark contrast—abalone are all but absent even in rich shell midden deposits. We explore four possible explanations for the lack of re…
News and Notes
Prehistory of Nevada's northern tier
Rock Country, Upper Lahontan Basin, Upper Humboldt Plains, and Thousand Springs Valley (fig.2).None of these regions have significant stands of pinyon, major watercourses, or extensive wetland areas.Despite the lack of these habitats, which were so critical to ethnographic groups living in the more southerly, core areas of the Great Basin, the project corridor was used by many people throughout the prehistoric past.These occupations were not cons…
Large-Game Hunting in the American West
Fisher's (2015) reanalysis of data presented by Hildebrandt and McGuire (2002) fails to include the original finding that the Middle Archaic was the trans-Holocene high-point of large-game hunting in southeastern California, nor does his reliance on climatic change contribute anything new to the ascendance of hunting debate
Tufa Village (Nevada)
The Morro Bay Fauna
A robust collection of mammal, bird, fish, and shellfish remains from an 8,000-year residential sequence at Morro Bay, a small, isolated estuary on the central California coast, shows a strong focus on marine species during the Middle-Late Transition cultural phase (950-700 cal B.P.), which largely coincides with the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (MCA). Previous studies have provided modest evidence for increased fishing and rabbit hunting during the…
Allika Ruby (1969–2017)
Allika Ruby at Altono Bajo. Photograph courtesy of Jerry Doty.Allika Ruby died of cancer in Winters, California, on 25 October 2017. She was only 48 years old. She leaves behind her husband and fel
At the vanishing point
This volume presents the results of data recovery excavations directed at prehistoric archaeological deposits located near Sulphur Springs, along the southeastern margin of the Black Rock Desert, in Humboldt and Pershing counties, Nevada. Although 20 sites with prehistoric assemblages were identified during this project, intact spatio-temporal components were found at only seven of these sites, of which just five were the focus of intensive data …
Style, identity, and resource competition on the border
The Prehistory of Morro Bay
Richard A. Gould (1939–2020)
Richard Gould, Professor Emeritus at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, passed away last year at the age of 81. He was a world-renowned archaeologist, making major contributions to the f
Archaeology (20 works) · Geography (19 works) · Ecology (12 works) · History (12 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (11 works) · Biology (10 works) · Prehistory (10 works) · Ecology (7 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (7 works) · Archaeology and Natural History (6 works)