Linda Nicholas
Biographic Data
| ID | 629262 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Linda Nicholas |
| GIVEN NAMES | Linda |
| FAMILY NAME | Nicholas |
| SIGNATURE | NICHOLAS L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Field Museum of Natural History |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1789-2837 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 56 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 449 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 56 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Reflective Perspectives from 33 Years at the Journal of Archaeological Research
Tracing a Source of Liangchengzhen’s Polished Stone Tools
For early China, the assumption has been that craft production was centrally controlled by autocratic rulers in early cities. In this paper, we present new findings of stone tool assemblages at the small Nanyangjiazhuangzi site (Longshan period, 2400–1800 b.c.) in the coastal area of Shandong Province, China. At Nanyangjiazhuangzi, the unusually high density of stone artifacts and debris, associated with the early stages of tool manufacture, indi…
Shifting crop choices in a transition zone: Macrobotanical insights from Shandong, Eastern China (5000–2200 cal. BP)
Zhou period transformations at the Qianzhongzitou site (Gaomi, Shandong, China)
With the eastward expansion of the Western Zhou c. 1050 BC, the Jiaodong Peninsula on the north-east coast of modern-day China became part of a large polity. Excavations at Qianzhongzitou, located on this peninsula, are revealing how political control over local populations took place. Here, the authors focus on a sequence of Zhou-period, non-residential platforms, the construction of which signifies new forms of ritual spaces. These types of spa…
Radiocarbon Database Offers New Perspectives on Ancient Oaxaca
We present a dataset of 1,119 radiocarbon dates and their contexts for Oaxaca, Mexico, a best effort to include all published dates, plus hundreds of unpublished samples. We illustrate its potential and limitations with five examples: (1) dated stratigraphy in stream cutbanks show how aggradation, downcutting, and stability responded to global climate and human activities; (2) 14C samples from Late/Terminal Formative contexts allow interregional …
Population dynamics and imperial expansion in eastern Shandong (China) during the last millennium BCE
Ancient Oaxaca: The Monte Albán State
From Subsistence to Sacrifice: Dogs for Dinner and Ritual in Classic Period Zapotec Communities
Macroscale Shifts in Obsidian Procurement Networks Across Prehispanic Mesoamerica
Reframing the Foundation of Monte Albán
Monte Albán was founded in the Valley of Oaxaca (Mexico) around 500 bc and grew quickly in size and monumentality. We offer new theoretical perspectives on the dynamic processes associated with this transitional episode of change. Adopting a multiscalar approach, we frame this transition and the rapid growth of the hilltop centre as an innovative social response to defensive concerns as well as other factors that offered new opportunities both to…
The Foundation of Monte Albán, Intensification, and Growth: Coactive Processes and Joint Production
Most early sedentary villages (c. 1500–500 BCE) in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, were situated on or near well-watered land. Around 500 BCE, a new hilltop center, Monte Albán, was established at the nexus of the valley's three arms, where agriculture was far riskier due to unreliable rainfall and a dearth of permanent water sources. During the era of its establishment, not only was Monte Albán larger than any earlier community in the region, but …
The Emergence of Monte Albán: A Social Innovation That Lasted a Millennium
Monte Albán, one of Mexico’s earliest cities, was founded in the Valley of Oaxaca around 500 bc as a central fulcrum in a dynamic episode of change that grounds subsequent regional history. Proposed explanations for the establishment of Monte Albán are numerous and diverse; yet, to date, they tend to emphasize only the agency of the elite. Here, we offer new theoretical perspectives on the dynamic processes associated with this multifaceted, tran…
Marketplaces and market exchanges in the pre-colonial Americas
A local perspective on China's initial unification: Archaeological survey and historical documents from southeastern Shandong
Relict Plant Communities at Prehispanic Sites in Oaxaca, Mexico: Historical Implications
Bioarqueologia de la Violencia: Traumatismos en Esqueletos Femeninos de El Palmillo, Oaxaca
Desde una perspectiva bioarqueológica, examinamos la incidencia de traumatismos presentes en esqueletos de los habitantes de la antigua ciudad de El Palmillo, dentro del período Clásico (250-850 d.C.). El Palmillo es un asentamiento zapoteca perteneciente al Valle de Oaxaca, ubicado en el municipio de Santiago Matatlán. La muestra de estudio (n=16) está conformada por 10 individuos femeninos, 5 masculinos y 1 indeterminado. Comparamos la localiza…
Bioarqueología de la Niñez: El caso de El Palmillo durante el Clásico
Desde la perspectiva bioarqueológica y arqueológica, la niñez no se muy considerada en investigaciones en Mesoamérica y Oaxaca. Para comprender mejor este problema, examinamos las diferencias en el tratamiento funerario para niños y adultos y evaluamos los ejes de variación entre estas diferentes muestras definidas por edad. De los más de 100 esqueletos humanos en la colección osteológica de El Palmillo que data del período Clásico (250-850 d.C.)…
A Regional Perspective on Hohokam Irrigation in the Lower Salt River Valley, Arizona
One of the largest prehistoric irrigation systems in North America, covering approximately 650 square kilometers, is located in the Lower Salt River Valley of Arizona. These ancient canals generated considerable interest among early European explorers and settlers to the area, and over the last 100 years, Hohokam canals have been the focus of substantial research. The first archaeological studies of Hohokam irrigation were conducted in the late 1…
Coastal Shandong, China: The longue durée
Assessing Wealth Inequality in the Pre-Hispanic Valley of Oaxaca: Comparative Implications
Greater post-Neolithic wealth disparities in Eurasia than in North America and Mesoamerica
Re-envisioning Prehispanic Mesoamerican Economies: Modes of Production, Fiscal Foundations of Collective Action, and Conceptual Legacies
Turkey husbandry and use in Oaxaca, Mexico: A contextual study of turkey remains and SEM analysis of eggshell from the Mitla Fortress
Differences in the classic period mortuary treatment of adults and children in the Valley of Oaxaca
Reconsiderando la "invasión mixteca" del valle de Oaxaca en el Posclásico
Desde el descubrimiento de la increíble tumba 7 en Monte Albán hace más de 80 años, se han considerado la despoblación y el decaimiento del dicho centro urbano del periodo Clásico (c. 800-900 dC) y los cambios prehispánicos subsecuentes en el Valle de Oaxaca como consecuencia de una supuesta invasión de los mixtecos que suplantaran los zapotecos indígenas de la región. Integramos y enfocamos en los refinamientos cronológicos nuevos, así como un r…
Late Neolithic Plant Remains from Northern China: Preliminary Results from Liangchengzhen, Shandong
At the Margins of the Monte Alban State: Settlement Patterns in the Ejutla Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico
A recent systematic archaeological survey in the Ejutla Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico, enables us to examine long-term settlement-pattern changes in this small region and its shifting Prehispanic relation with the larger, adjacent Valley of Oaxaca. Throughout the sequence, Ejutla was settled less densely than Oaxaca, though the degree of difference varied through time. Ejutla was not a simple microcosm of Oaxaca; rather the former region shifted from a …
Typological Schemes and Agricultural Change: Beyond Boserup in Precolonial South India [and Comments and Reply]
Ecological Theory and Cultural Evolution in the Valley of Oaxaca [and Comments and Reply]
Dietary adaptation during the Longshan period in China: Stable isotope analyses at Liangchengzhen (southeastern Shandong)
Long-Term Demographic Change: A Perspective from the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico
Based on the findings of more than 10 years of regional archaeological survey, the prehispanic settlement history of the Valley of Oaxaca in Southern Mexico is presented for the 3,OOO-year period prior to Spanish Conquest. The process of long-term demographic change is examined at several analytical scales and discussed in relation to political and economic transitions. Specific emphasis is given to the discussion of those parts of the Valley tha…
Houses on a Hill: Classic Period Life at El Palmillo, Oaxaca, Mexico
The increasing attention devoted to the investigation of prehispanic houses in Mesoamerica owes much theoretically and methodologically to the early household archaeology undertaken decades ago in the Valley of Oaxaca. Yet despite the large sample of Formative period houses excavated in this region, little is known about domestic life during the later Classic and Postclassic periods. In this paper we broaden the database of Classic period houses …
Spindle Whorls from El Palmillo: Economic Implications
We analyze household inventories from eight excavated residences at El Palmillo (Oaxaca, Mexico) with a focus on a large sample of spindle whorls. Measurement of the whorls provides a basis to suggest that a variety of fibers were spun in these Classic period households; however, the particular mix of fibers varied in each residence. The distribution of whorls by size and production technique was compared with the spatial patterning of other tool…
Pottery Kilns of Ancient Ejutla, Oaxaca, Mexico
In contemporary Mesoamerica, traditional methods of ceramic production are highly variable. Tracing this diversity to its prehispanic antecedents has been limited by a major empirical difficulty: the identification of production sites, especially kilns and other firing features, in archaeological contexts. As a consequence, Mesoamerican archaeologists have rarely recognized technological variation in firing methods, thereby limiting their capacit…
Shell-Ornament Production in Ejutla: Implications for highland–coastal interaction in ancient Oaxaca
Findings from recent survey and excavation projects in Ejutla, Oaxaca, enable a broader examination of marine shell use and exchange in ancient Mesoamerica. A variety of shell ornaments were manufactured from Pacific Coast species at the Ejutla site during the Terminal Formative/Early Classic periods. Comparisons of the Ejutla mollusc assemblage with shell ornaments found at other highland Oaxaca sites indicate shifts in the nature of shell-ornam…
Coastal Shandong, China: The longue durée
Socioeconomic Inequality and the Consumption of Chipped Stone at El Palmillo, Oaxaca, Mexico
In prehispanic Mesoamerica, basic utilitarian artifacts, such as non-obsidian chipped stone tools, have rarely been considered outside the realms of technology or the economics of manufacture and circulation. Yet in recent excavations of residential terraces at the Classic period hilltop settlement of El Palmillo, Oaxaca, we have noted spatial patterning in the distribution of chipped stone tools that parallels variation previously observed in a …
Systematic, Regional Survey in SE Shandong Province, China
This paper presents results from two seasons of full coverage, systematic, regional survey in SE Shandong province, China. It describes how systematic, regional survey provides valuable information on change in settlement patterns during the late prehistoric and early historical periods in northern China. Full coverage survey enabled us to discover scores of new sites in the area. Our collaborative survey, the first of its kind in the Yellow Rive…
A Technological Perspective on Changes in the Ancient Oaxacan Grayware Ceramic Tradition: Preliminary Results
The Valley of Oaxaca (Mexico) has a long prehispanic sequence of reduced grayware (gris) pottery that is antecedent to the region's renowned contemporary blackware made today in the village of San Bartolo Coyotepec. Although generally plain, this prehispanic gris ceramic tradition underwent several significant changes in surface finish, thickness, and paste composition. A series of preliminary analyses, including petrography porosity measurements…
The missing femur at the Mitla Fortress and its implications
The authors explore the practice of extracting the thighbone from burials in Mesoamerica, making use of a newly excavated Classic period Zapotec burial at the Mitla Fortress, where the femur had been carefully removed and the interment resealed. They conclude that the femur acted as an ancestral emblem and could be used by families of relatively low social rank. This function contrasts with the Aztec, where the large bones could also be used as w…
Household Economic Specialization and Social Differentiation: The stone-tool assemblage at El Palmillo, Oaxaca
This paper examines the stone-tool assemblage recovered from excavations of six Classic-period residential terraces at El Palmillo, a terraced hilltop community in the eastern arm of the Valley of Oaxaca. Based on this analysis, stone-tool production and the processing of xerophytic plants—most important, maguey—were found to be important household craft industries at the site. Yet certain craft activities were practiced in only a few households,…
Regional survey and the development of complex societies in southeastern Shandong, China
This article shows that full-coverage regional survey is an effective tool for understanding change over time in regional settlement patterns in north China. Five seasons of survey in the Rizhao area of southeastern Shandong demonstrate a nucleated pattern of settlement around the Longshan site of Liangchengzhen and a clear settlement hierarchy, with distinctly different patterns for later periods
Domestic Offerings at El Palmillo: Implications for Community Organization
Although the topic has received recent attention, relatively little is known about how pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican communities were internally organized and interconnected. In this paper, we examine that question from the perspective of the Classic-period settlement of El Palmillo, in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Previous studies of the valley have postulated that communities often were (and still are) subdivided into barrios, although the modes o…
Domestic Faunal Assemblages from the Classic Period Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico: A Perspective on the Subsistence and Craft Economies
Reconsiderando la "invasión mixteca" del valle de Oaxaca en el Posclásico
Desde el descubrimiento de la increíble tumba 7 en Monte Albán hace más de 80 años, se han considerado la despoblación y el decaimiento del dicho centro urbano del periodo Clásico (c. 800-900 dC) y los cambios prehispánicos subsecuentes en el Valle de Oaxaca como consecuencia de una supuesta invasión de los mixtecos que suplantaran los zapotecos indígenas de la región. Integramos y enfocamos en los refinamientos cronológicos nuevos, así como un r…
Socioeconomic Inequality and Differential Access to Faunal Resources at El Palmillo, Oaxaca, Mexico
Differential access to faunal resources (meat) is one index of socioeconomic inequality that traditionally has been considered but rarely investigated in ancient Mesoamerica. Recent excavations in residential contexts at the Classic-period hilltop terrace site of El Palmillo, in the Valley of Oaxaca (Mexico), have produced a large faunal assemblage from a set of different households. Terrace-by-terrace comparisons reveal spatial variability in th…
Differences in the classic period mortuary treatment of adults and children in the Valley of Oaxaca
The Role of Risk in Formative Period Agriculture: A Reconsideration
The Foundation of Monte Albán, Intensification, and Growth: Coactive Processes and Joint Production
Most early sedentary villages (c. 1500–500 BCE) in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, were situated on or near well-watered land. Around 500 BCE, a new hilltop center, Monte Albán, was established at the nexus of the valley's three arms, where agriculture was far riskier due to unreliable rainfall and a dearth of permanent water sources. During the era of its establishment, not only was Monte Albán larger than any earlier community in the region, but …
Intensive survey of hilltop terrace sites in Oaxaca, Mexico
As part of a long-term project examining the Classic-Postclassic (AD 200-1520) domestic economy in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, we have completed intensive mapping and surface survey at three large, hilltop terrace sites in eastern Tlacolula: Guirún (Saville 1900; 1909), El Palmillo and the Mitla Fortress (Holmes 1897). Earlier surveys (Kowalewskiet al. 1989) indicated that all three sites were craft production centres (stone working) and had ex…
Long-Term Demographic Change: A Perspective from the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico
Based on the findings of more than 10 years of regional archaeological survey, the prehispanic settlement history of the Valley of Oaxaca in Southern Mexico is presented for the 3,OOO-year period prior to Spanish Conquest. The process of long-term demographic change is examined at several analytical scales and discussed in relation to political and economic transitions. Specific emphasis is given to the discussion of those parts of the Valley tha…
Prehispanic colonization of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico
Ecological Theory and Cultural Evolution in the Valley of Oaxaca [and Comments and Reply]
Monte Albán's Hinterland, Part II: Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlan, the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, Vols. 1 and 2
This two-volume monograph is the final report and synthesis of the Valley of Oaxaca Settlement Pattern Project's full-coverage surface survey and makes significant theoretical and methodological contributions to the investigation of social evolution, cultural ecology, and regional analysis.
A Technological Perspective on Changes in the Ancient Oaxacan Grayware Ceramic Tradition: Preliminary Results
The Valley of Oaxaca (Mexico) has a long prehispanic sequence of reduced grayware (gris) pottery that is antecedent to the region's renowned contemporary blackware made today in the village of San Bartolo Coyotepec. Although generally plain, this prehispanic gris ceramic tradition underwent several significant changes in surface finish, thickness, and paste composition. A series of preliminary analyses, including petrography porosity measurements…
The Role of Risk in Formative Period Agriculture: A Reconsideration
At the Margins of the Monte Alban State: Settlement Patterns in the Ejutla Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico
A recent systematic archaeological survey in the Ejutla Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico, enables us to examine long-term settlement-pattern changes in this small region and its shifting Prehispanic relation with the larger, adjacent Valley of Oaxaca. Throughout the sequence, Ejutla was settled less densely than Oaxaca, though the degree of difference varied through time. Ejutla was not a simple microcosm of Oaxaca; rather the former region shifted from a …
Pre-Hispanic Interregional Interaction in Southern Mexico
Shell-Ornament Production in Ejutla: Implications for highland–coastal interaction in ancient Oaxaca
Findings from recent survey and excavation projects in Ejutla, Oaxaca, enable a broader examination of marine shell use and exchange in ancient Mesoamerica. A variety of shell ornaments were manufactured from Pacific Coast species at the Ejutla site during the Terminal Formative/Early Classic periods. Comparisons of the Ejutla mollusc assemblage with shell ornaments found at other highland Oaxaca sites indicate shifts in the nature of shell-ornam…
Typological Schemes and Agricultural Change: Beyond Boserup in Precolonial South India [and Comments and Reply]
Short Stature, Growth Hormone Deficiency, and Social Anxiety
OBJECTIVE: We have reported high rates of social phobia in growth hormone-deficient (GHD) adults who had been treated with growth hormone during childhood. This follow-up study was conducted to determine whether the increased social phobia observed in GHD subjects was secondary to the effects of short stature. METHODS: Twenty-one age- and sex-matched non-GHD short adults were evaluated for social anxiety and compared with the previously studied 2…
Pottery Kilns of Ancient Ejutla, Oaxaca, Mexico
In contemporary Mesoamerica, traditional methods of ceramic production are highly variable. Tracing this diversity to its prehispanic antecedents has been limited by a major empirical difficulty: the identification of production sites, especially kilns and other firing features, in archaeological contexts. As a consequence, Mesoamerican archaeologists have rarely recognized technological variation in firing methods, thereby limiting their capacit…
Clarifying Latin American Antiquity's Mission: Considerations for Authors
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Systematic, Regional Survey in SE Shandong Province, China
This paper presents results from two seasons of full coverage, systematic, regional survey in SE Shandong province, China. It describes how systematic, regional survey provides valuable information on change in settlement patterns during the late prehistoric and early historical periods in northern China. Full coverage survey enabled us to discover scores of new sites in the area. Our collaborative survey, the first of its kind in the Yellow Rive…
Intensive survey of hilltop terrace sites in Oaxaca, Mexico
As part of a long-term project examining the Classic-Postclassic (AD 200-1520) domestic economy in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, we have completed intensive mapping and surface survey at three large, hilltop terrace sites in eastern Tlacolula: Guirún (Saville 1900; 1909), El Palmillo and the Mitla Fortress (Holmes 1897). Earlier surveys (Kowalewskiet al. 1989) indicated that all three sites were craft production centres (stone working) and had ex…
Domestic Faunal Assemblages from the Classic Period Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico: A Perspective on the Subsistence and Craft Economies
Houses on a Hill: Classic Period Life at El Palmillo, Oaxaca, Mexico
The increasing attention devoted to the investigation of prehispanic houses in Mesoamerica owes much theoretically and methodologically to the early household archaeology undertaken decades ago in the Valley of Oaxaca. Yet despite the large sample of Formative period houses excavated in this region, little is known about domestic life during the later Classic and Postclassic periods. In this paper we broaden the database of Classic period houses …
Regional survey and the development of complex societies in southeastern Shandong, China
This article shows that full-coverage regional survey is an effective tool for understanding change over time in regional settlement patterns in north China. Five seasons of survey in the Rizhao area of southeastern Shandong demonstrate a nucleated pattern of settlement around the Longshan site of Liangchengzhen and a clear settlement hierarchy, with distinctly different patterns for later periods
Residential Terrace Excavations at El Palmillo, Oaxaca, Mexico
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Household Economic Specialization and Social Differentiation: The stone-tool assemblage at El Palmillo, Oaxaca
This paper examines the stone-tool assemblage recovered from excavations of six Classic-period residential terraces at El Palmillo, a terraced hilltop community in the eastern arm of the Valley of Oaxaca. Based on this analysis, stone-tool production and the processing of xerophytic plants—most important, maguey—were found to be important household craft industries at the site. Yet certain craft activities were practiced in only a few households,…
Late Neolithic Plant Remains from Northern China: Preliminary Results from Liangchengzhen, Shandong
Socioeconomic Inequality and Differential Access to Faunal Resources at El Palmillo, Oaxaca, Mexico
Differential access to faunal resources (meat) is one index of socioeconomic inequality that traditionally has been considered but rarely investigated in ancient Mesoamerica. Recent excavations in residential contexts at the Classic-period hilltop terrace site of El Palmillo, in the Valley of Oaxaca (Mexico), have produced a large faunal assemblage from a set of different households. Terrace-by-terrace comparisons reveal spatial variability in th…
Socioeconomic Inequality and the Consumption of Chipped Stone at El Palmillo, Oaxaca, Mexico
In prehispanic Mesoamerica, basic utilitarian artifacts, such as non-obsidian chipped stone tools, have rarely been considered outside the realms of technology or the economics of manufacture and circulation. Yet in recent excavations of residential terraces at the Classic period hilltop settlement of El Palmillo, Oaxaca, we have noted spatial patterning in the distribution of chipped stone tools that parallels variation previously observed in a …
Changes in regional settlement patterns and the development of complex societies in southeastern Shandong, China
Domestic Offerings at El Palmillo: Implications for Community Organization
Although the topic has received recent attention, relatively little is known about how pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican communities were internally organized and interconnected. In this paper, we examine that question from the perspective of the Classic-period settlement of El Palmillo, in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Previous studies of the valley have postulated that communities often were (and still are) subdivided into barrios, although the modes o…
Geography (44 works) · Archaeology (40 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (35 works) · History (19 works) · Latin American history and culture (18 works) · Economic geography (12 works) · History (12 works) · Art (11 works) · China (11 works) · Mesoamerica (11 works)