Jeffrey S Rosenthal
Biographic Data
| ID | 287998 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jeffrey S Rosenthal |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jeffrey S |
| FAMILY NAME | Rosenthal |
| SIGNATURE | ROSENTHAL J S |
| AFFILIATIONS | American Anthropological Association |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5118-6808 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 74 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Geomorphology and Prehistoric Site Distribution Near Hamilton City, California, and Their Implications for the Archaeological Record of the Sacramento Valley
Despite more than a century of investigations, archaeologists have found few prehistoric sites over 3,000 years old in California's Central Valley. Yet, recent surface inventory, geoarchaeological trenching, and archaeological excavations along the Sacramento River near Hamilton City, California, identified 10 archaeological sites and 15 occupational components spanning the last 7,000 years. Half of these components occurred solely in buried cont…
Isotopic Evidence of Sources for Central California Olivella Beads
Without the large bead production sites present on the Channel Islands, the origin of Olivella beads in central California has been largely speculative. Stable isotope analysis of shell carbonate provides a useful test of source, production, and distribution hypotheses by providing information about the environment of shell formation. We reassess results of previous stable isotope sourcing studies and employ a cluster analysis that suggests most …
Bedrock mortars as indicators of territorial behavior in the Sierra Nevada
Social boundaries, territoriality, and the cultural ecology of artiodactyl hunting in prehistoric central California
Information Aggregation with Costly Reporting
A group of privately informed individuals with common interests chooses a binary option. Each individual chooses whether to reveal her signal, at a cost. If the group is large and cannot commit to a decision rule then it takes the correct decision with high probability in one state but with probability bounded away from one in the other. It cannot do better by committing to an anonymous decision rule without transfers, but can achieve the first b…
Further Thoughts on the Age of the Sylwester Clovis Point: A Response to Haynes
We are indebted to C. Vance Haynes Jr for his careful reading of our 2017 report and for proposing alternative explanations for our field observations. In response, we consider each of the alternatives, present additional data, and find that our main conclusion – namely that some Clovis points in California may be of early Holocene age – does not require emendation in light of current knowledge
A probable prehistoric case of meningococcal disease from San Francisco Bay: Next generation sequencing of Neisseria meningitidis from dental calculus and osteological evidence
Dental calculus as a source of ancient alkaloids: Detection of nicotine by LC-MS in calculus samples from the Americas
Fluted and Basally Thinned Concave-Base Points of Obsidian in the Borden Collection from Inyo County, Alta California: Age and Significance
This article describes, classifies, and provides the calculated ages of 14 basally thinned and fluted points of obsidian in the Borden collection from Rose Valley in southern Inyo County, California. With the exception of one item of Fish Springs obsidian, the specimens are all made of glass from geologic subsources in the Coso Volcanic Field. Typologically, the fragmentary and reworked artifacts appear to represent Clovis, or perhaps Clovis-deri…
A Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene Environmental Record and Fluted Point from Twain Harte, California
Although more than 500 Clovis points have been found at no fewer than 60 locations in California, the age of these points remains problematic. Here we report stratified deposits more than 3 meters deep at a site in the central Sierra Nevada from which a Clovis point was recovered in 1969. Five radiocarbon (14C) dates provide temporal control for terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene strata at the site, including the sediments in which the point…
Prehistory of Nevada's northern tier: Archaeological investigations along the Ruby Pipeline
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…
Grades and incentives: Assessing Competing Grade Point Average Measures and Postgraduate Outcomes
In many educational settings, students may have an incentive to take courses where high grades are easier to achieve, potentially corroding student learning, evaluation of student achievement, and the fairness and efficiency of post-graduation labor outcomes. A grading system that takes into account heterogeneity of teacher standards and student ability could mitigate these problems. Using unique data from a major Canadian research university, we…
An Ethnobiological Approach to Reconstructing Indigenous Fire Regimes in the Foothill Chaparral of the Western Sierra Nevada
Ethnographic interviews and historical literature reviews provide evidence that the nine ethno-linguistic groups inhabiting the foothill region of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada relied on a variety of plants and animals from chaparral communities to meet their material needs and deliberately burned the chaparral to maximize its ability to produce useful products. The reasons for burning in chaparral are grouped into six ecologically-based…
The Holocene biogeography of Pinus sabiniana Douglas ex D. Don (gray pine) in California
Opinion Writing and Authorship on the Supreme Court of Canada
In contrast to other branches of government, the Supreme Court of Canada operates with relatively lean staffing. For most of the Court’s history, its justices alone determined which cases to review, heard oral argument, and wrote opinions. Only since 1967 have justices have been aided in these responsibilities by law clerks. While interest abounds in the relationship between justices and their clerks – particularly the writing of opinions – very …
Hunter-Gatherer Storage, Settlement, and the Opportunity Costs of Women's Foraging
Food storage is a crucial adaptation for hunter-gatherers who face seasonal resource shortfalls, but the extra time that hunter-gatherer s must spend accumulating food surpluses has the potential to conflict with the time they need for other activities during seasons of abundance. Since the activities that conflict with storage may be different for women and men, it is important to consider which gender is responsible for storage. We argue that w…
The role of canids in ritual and domestic contexts: New ancient DNA insights from complex hunter–gatherer sites in prehistoric Central California
Setting the Record Straight
Stable Isotope Provenance Analysis of Olivella Shell Beads From the Los Angeles Basin and San Nicolas Island
Production of marine shell beads in island and coastal settings was an important activity in prehistory, with important political and economic ties. Currently, there are few methods to track beads to their locus of production. Examining the spatial distribution of bead types provides one method of doing so. Chemical and stable isotopic methods provide an additional and independent means of testing hypotheses generated by spatial distributions. We…
Human Behavioral Ecology and Historical Contingency: A Comment on the Diablo Canyon Archaeological Record
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…
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…
Early Holocene Landscape Archaeology in the Coso Basin, Northwestern Mojave Desert, California
Early Holocene adaptations are still poorly understood in North America. The archaeological record of this period is often difficult to access and most studies have taken a site-based approach, focused on a small number of well-excavated sites. The archaeological record of the Coso Basin in the northwest Mojave Desert provides the unique opportunity to approach adaptations from a landscape, rather than a site-based, perspective. Large sections of…
Provenance analysis of Olivella biplicata shell beads from the California and Oregon Coast by stable isotope fingerprinting
Are obsidian subsources meaningful units of analysis: Temporal and spatial patterning of subsources in the Coso Volcanic Field, southeastern California
Projectile Point Typology and Chronology in the North Central Sierra Nevada
Despite years of concerted research, no well substantiated projectile point chronology for the western slope of the central Sierra Nevada has been established. Several reasons for this have been identified, including a lack of datable contexts, stratigraphic mixing, and excessive morphological variability resulting from material constraints and regular tool resharpening. Existing projectile point typologies, while accommodating the full range of …
Prehistory of Nevada's northern tier: Archaeological investigations along the Ruby Pipeline
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…
Are obsidian subsources meaningful units of analysis: Temporal and spatial patterning of subsources in the Coso Volcanic Field, southeastern California
Provenance analysis of Olivella biplicata shell beads from the California and Oregon Coast by stable isotope fingerprinting
The role of canids in ritual and domestic contexts: New ancient DNA insights from complex hunter–gatherer sites in prehistoric Central California
Stable Isotope Provenance Analysis of Olivella Shell Beads From the Los Angeles Basin and San Nicolas Island
Production of marine shell beads in island and coastal settings was an important activity in prehistory, with important political and economic ties. Currently, there are few methods to track beads to their locus of production. Examining the spatial distribution of bead types provides one method of doing so. Chemical and stable isotopic methods provide an additional and independent means of testing hypotheses generated by spatial distributions. We…
Hunter-Gatherer Storage, Settlement, and the Opportunity Costs of Women's Foraging
Food storage is a crucial adaptation for hunter-gatherers who face seasonal resource shortfalls, but the extra time that hunter-gatherer s must spend accumulating food surpluses has the potential to conflict with the time they need for other activities during seasons of abundance. Since the activities that conflict with storage may be different for women and men, it is important to consider which gender is responsible for storage. We argue that w…
Human Behavioral Ecology and Historical Contingency: A Comment on the Diablo Canyon Archaeological Record
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…
Active learning strategies in advanced mathematics classes
Advanced mathematics and other theoretical sciences are often taught purely using the lecture format, which promotes passivity and isolation in students. This paper advocates the use of certain alternative teaching methods, including co-operative learning in small groups and essay-writing assignments about technical topics. The emphasis throughout is on getting students to participate more, to interact more, and to broaden their perspective. Effo…
Dental calculus as a source of ancient alkaloids: Detection of nicotine by LC-MS in calculus samples from the Americas
Grades and incentives: Assessing Competing Grade Point Average Measures and Postgraduate Outcomes
In many educational settings, students may have an incentive to take courses where high grades are easier to achieve, potentially corroding student learning, evaluation of student achievement, and the fairness and efficiency of post-graduation labor outcomes. A grading system that takes into account heterogeneity of teacher standards and student ability could mitigate these problems. Using unique data from a major Canadian research university, we…
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…
Early Holocene Landscape Archaeology in the Coso Basin, Northwestern Mojave Desert, California
Early Holocene adaptations are still poorly understood in North America. The archaeological record of this period is often difficult to access and most studies have taken a site-based approach, focused on a small number of well-excavated sites. The archaeological record of the Coso Basin in the northwest Mojave Desert provides the unique opportunity to approach adaptations from a landscape, rather than a site-based, perspective. Large sections of…
Projectile Point Typology and Chronology in the North Central Sierra Nevada
Despite years of concerted research, no well substantiated projectile point chronology for the western slope of the central Sierra Nevada has been established. Several reasons for this have been identified, including a lack of datable contexts, stratigraphic mixing, and excessive morphological variability resulting from material constraints and regular tool resharpening. Existing projectile point typologies, while accommodating the full range of …
Active learning strategies in advanced mathematics classes
Advanced mathematics and other theoretical sciences are often taught purely using the lecture format, which promotes passivity and isolation in students. This paper advocates the use of certain alternative teaching methods, including co-operative learning in small groups and essay-writing assignments about technical topics. The emphasis throughout is on getting students to participate more, to interact more, and to broaden their perspective. Effo…
Projectile Point Typology and Chronology in the North Central Sierra Nevada
Despite years of concerted research, no well substantiated projectile point chronology for the western slope of the central Sierra Nevada has been established. Several reasons for this have been identified, including a lack of datable contexts, stratigraphic mixing, and excessive morphological variability resulting from material constraints and regular tool resharpening. Existing projectile point typologies, while accommodating the full range of …
Are obsidian subsources meaningful units of analysis: Temporal and spatial patterning of subsources in the Coso Volcanic Field, southeastern California
Provenance analysis of Olivella biplicata shell beads from the California and Oregon Coast by stable isotope fingerprinting
Early Holocene Landscape Archaeology in the Coso Basin, Northwestern Mojave Desert, California
Early Holocene adaptations are still poorly understood in North America. The archaeological record of this period is often difficult to access and most studies have taken a site-based approach, focused on a small number of well-excavated sites. The archaeological record of the Coso Basin in the northwest Mojave Desert provides the unique opportunity to approach adaptations from a landscape, rather than a site-based, perspective. Large sections of…
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
Stable Isotope Provenance Analysis of Olivella Shell Beads From the Los Angeles Basin and San Nicolas Island
Production of marine shell beads in island and coastal settings was an important activity in prehistory, with important political and economic ties. Currently, there are few methods to track beads to their locus of production. Examining the spatial distribution of bead types provides one method of doing so. Chemical and stable isotopic methods provide an additional and independent means of testing hypotheses generated by spatial distributions. We…
Human Behavioral Ecology and Historical Contingency: A Comment on the Diablo Canyon Archaeological Record
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…
The role of canids in ritual and domestic contexts: New ancient DNA insights from complex hunter–gatherer sites in prehistoric Central California
Opinion Writing and Authorship on the Supreme Court of Canada
In contrast to other branches of government, the Supreme Court of Canada operates with relatively lean staffing. For most of the Court’s history, its justices alone determined which cases to review, heard oral argument, and wrote opinions. Only since 1967 have justices have been aided in these responsibilities by law clerks. While interest abounds in the relationship between justices and their clerks – particularly the writing of opinions – very …
Hunter-Gatherer Storage, Settlement, and the Opportunity Costs of Women's Foraging
Food storage is a crucial adaptation for hunter-gatherers who face seasonal resource shortfalls, but the extra time that hunter-gatherer s must spend accumulating food surpluses has the potential to conflict with the time they need for other activities during seasons of abundance. Since the activities that conflict with storage may be different for women and men, it is important to consider which gender is responsible for storage. We argue that w…
The Holocene biogeography of Pinus sabiniana Douglas ex D. Don (gray pine) in California
An Ethnobiological Approach to Reconstructing Indigenous Fire Regimes in the Foothill Chaparral of the Western Sierra Nevada
Ethnographic interviews and historical literature reviews provide evidence that the nine ethno-linguistic groups inhabiting the foothill region of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada relied on a variety of plants and animals from chaparral communities to meet their material needs and deliberately burned the chaparral to maximize its ability to produce useful products. The reasons for burning in chaparral are grouped into six ecologically-based…
Prehistory of Nevada's northern tier: Archaeological investigations along the Ruby Pipeline
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…
Grades and incentives: Assessing Competing Grade Point Average Measures and Postgraduate Outcomes
In many educational settings, students may have an incentive to take courses where high grades are easier to achieve, potentially corroding student learning, evaluation of student achievement, and the fairness and efficiency of post-graduation labor outcomes. A grading system that takes into account heterogeneity of teacher standards and student ability could mitigate these problems. Using unique data from a major Canadian research university, we…
A Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene Environmental Record and Fluted Point from Twain Harte, California
Although more than 500 Clovis points have been found at no fewer than 60 locations in California, the age of these points remains problematic. Here we report stratified deposits more than 3 meters deep at a site in the central Sierra Nevada from which a Clovis point was recovered in 1969. Five radiocarbon (14C) dates provide temporal control for terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene strata at the site, including the sediments in which the point…
Further Thoughts on the Age of the Sylwester Clovis Point: A Response to Haynes
We are indebted to C. Vance Haynes Jr for his careful reading of our 2017 report and for proposing alternative explanations for our field observations. In response, we consider each of the alternatives, present additional data, and find that our main conclusion – namely that some Clovis points in California may be of early Holocene age – does not require emendation in light of current knowledge
A probable prehistoric case of meningococcal disease from San Francisco Bay: Next generation sequencing of Neisseria meningitidis from dental calculus and osteological evidence
Dental calculus as a source of ancient alkaloids: Detection of nicotine by LC-MS in calculus samples from the Americas
Fluted and Basally Thinned Concave-Base Points of Obsidian in the Borden Collection from Inyo County, Alta California: Age and Significance
This article describes, classifies, and provides the calculated ages of 14 basally thinned and fluted points of obsidian in the Borden collection from Rose Valley in southern Inyo County, California. With the exception of one item of Fish Springs obsidian, the specimens are all made of glass from geologic subsources in the Coso Volcanic Field. Typologically, the fragmentary and reworked artifacts appear to represent Clovis, or perhaps Clovis-deri…
Bedrock mortars as indicators of territorial behavior in the Sierra Nevada
Social boundaries, territoriality, and the cultural ecology of artiodactyl hunting in prehistoric central California
Information Aggregation with Costly Reporting
A group of privately informed individuals with common interests chooses a binary option. Each individual chooses whether to reveal her signal, at a cost. If the group is large and cannot commit to a decision rule then it takes the correct decision with high probability in one state but with probability bounded away from one in the other. It cannot do better by committing to an anonymous decision rule without transfers, but can achieve the first b…
Isotopic Evidence of Sources for Central California Olivella Beads
Without the large bead production sites present on the Channel Islands, the origin of Olivella beads in central California has been largely speculative. Stable isotope analysis of shell carbonate provides a useful test of source, production, and distribution hypotheses by providing information about the environment of shell formation. We reassess results of previous stable isotope sourcing studies and employ a cluster analysis that suggests most …
Archaeology (20 works) · Geography (20 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (14 works) · Geology (13 works) · Ecology (10 works) · Prehistory (10 works) · Biology (9 works) · Paleontology (9 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (8 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (7 works)