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Locating the subtle and uneven deposition of human activities across the landscape continues to challenge archaeologists. Existing tools (e.g. excavation, shovel testing, pedestrian survey, and terrestrial geophysics) have proven effective at locating many types of archaeological features but remain time-consuming and difficult to undertake on densely vegetated or topographically complex terrain. As a result of these limitations, key aspects of past communities remain largely outside of archaeological detection and interpretation. This flattening of past lifeways not only affects broader understandings of these communities, but can also negatively impact the preservation of archaeological sites. This paper presents the detection of archaeological features through an analysis of drone-acquired thermal, multispectral, and visible light imagery, alongside historical aerial photography, in the area surrounding Middle Grant Creek (11WI2739), a late prehistoric village located at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Will County, IL. Our investigations discovered a probable housing area and a ritual enclosure, increasing the area of the site from 3.4 ha to 20 ha. The proposed housing and ritual areas of this village also help contextualize finds from the ongoing archaeological excavations at Middle Grant Creek. More broadly, results demonstrate the valuable contributions that these relatively new archaeological survey methods have in shaping our understandings of the archaeological landscape and highlight the importance of integrating them into the archaeological toolkit.

Fine earthenwares imported from England are a distinctive artifact type frequently found on early nineteenth century Native American and Euro-American sites in eastern North America. Relatively rapid changes in decorative motifs and technologies can easily be identified by eye and provide information about site chronology and economic status. However, visual analyses of sherds usually can provide only general information because most assemblages are very fragmented. We present the chemical composition of pigments and glazes from sherds from two sites occupied during the first half of the nineteenth century: Pokagon Village, a Native American site (southwestern Michigan); and Collier Lodge, a Euro-American site (northwestern Indiana). Multi-element compositions of glazed portions of 12 sherds (with 3 different decorations, 2 specimens from each site of each pattern) were determined by scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), micro X-ray fluorescence (μXRF), and laser-ablation-inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). SEM-EDS was especially useful for determining glaze composition, μXRF rapidly provides information on pigment composition and Pb content, and LA-MC-ICP-MS provides information on trace elements and Pb isotopes that reflect different raw material sources.

Prehistoric population sizes are difficult to determine, even with very well documented archaeological contexts. Within the Western Great Lakes, USA region, village population size is poorly understood due to poor preservation of village structures, excavations that did not capture the full extents of villages, and widespread destruction of archaeological sites. We combine data from geophysical surveys, historical aerial and drone-based image analyses, as well as excavation to determine the distribution of archaeological features at the protohistoric Middle Grant Creek site (11WI2739), Illinois, USA. Estimates of village population are calculated and compared using multiple measures, including structure floor area, maize storage volume, cultivation area, and maize consumption. The different estimates vary, yet they converge to indicate a population of 100 and 180 people at this agricultural village. The use of converging multiple estimates of population provides a more convincing estimate than any single source and shows how various assumptions affect different estimates. The measures employed provide a new approach to determining village size beyond traditional methods of using floor area and historic comparison, and can be used in locations where traditional measures are not available, as well as for large, dispersed sites that cannot be fully excavated.

The study of Near Eastern Neolithic villages provides a unique means of tracing subsistence strategy, population growth, health, and emerging social inequality associated with agricultural origins. However, disentangling these patterns requires a detailed comprehension of the chronological placement of individual households in the site. In this paper, we present a test to determine the reliability and applicability of the fluoride dating method (a relative dating method) on human dentition of 40 samples from 28 Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (or PPNB) burials from the site of Tell Halula, in Syria. This method, applied here for the first time on a Neolithic Near East case study, is an alternative when other dating methods, like radiocarbon dates, do not provide the required temporal resolution to address particular research problems. Nonetheless, the results obtained in the fluoride analysis show how both the age at death of individuals, and the integrity of the burial plug enormously affect the amount of fluoride absorbed by teeth, so that only a small subset of the full dataset was suitable for fluoride dating. Although the distribution of fluoride values of dentine from the small sample of burials from suitable contexts matches the expected chronology, and corroborates the hypothesis that the occupation at Halula extends from the Middle to the Late PPNB, our analysis illustrates the need for a better understanding of the different sources of error in fluoride dating to improve the method itself, and to obtain more reliable fluoride chronologies.

Changes in the stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of modern bone samples heated to a variety of times and temperatures were used to determine the effect of heating on isotope ratios and the retention of organic matter in charred bones. For organic extracts produced by slow demineralization in weak acid, δ13C values were unchanged, while δ15N values increased by up to 5‰ and were primarily determined by heating temperature. Changes in the electron spin resonance (ESR) g-value of whole bone and organic extracts were also measured. For organic extracts from charred bones, the g-value was well-correlated with δ15N and temperature, suggesting that g-values could be used to estimate the charring temperature and original δ15N values of charred bones. Thus, g-values from demineralized extracts could be very useful in forensic investigations where it would important to reconstruct the thermal history of burned bones. Isotope ratios and g-values of demineralized extracts from four prehistoric components at three sites that produced cremated human bone were used to test whether the same approach can be applied to archaeological materials. While carbon isotope ratios of the prehistoric samples were similar to those of uncharred specimens, nitrogen isotope ratios were increased and the g-value corrections for nitrogen isotope ratios were not effective.

Stable N-isotope ratios are used to estimate the age of weaning in the prehistoric ( ad 1300–1450) population that inhabited the Angel site, a Middle Mississippian civic–ceremonial centre in the lower Ohio Valley. The high proportion of infants in the Angel skeletal series appears to reflect high rates of infant mortality associated with weaning within this sedentary society of maize agriculturalists. Age-related variations in stable N-isotope ratios of 23 juveniles are used to measure changes in childhood diet associated with breast-feeding after birth, weaning, and with the onset of adulthood. A pronounced peak in the stable N-isotope ratio prior to age 2 and a rapid decline in early childhood is used to estimate the age of weaning. The isotopic data are compared with estimated mortality rates to evaluate the consistency and precision of isotopic and mortality profiles as measures of weaning age. At Angel, weaning was not directly correlated with peak infant mortality. Non-linear equations that model prehistoric weaning behaviour are described. These equations produce estimates of both the timing and rates of juvenile dietary change that are amenable to statistical comparisons between archaeological sites. The non-linear models provide an approach that is more realistic and more informative than determining a single age of weaning.

Many different theories have been advanced to explain the existence of non-state complex societies (often described as chiefdoms). Explanations of the appearance or decline of chiefdoms have historically emphasized the relations between a society's productive base and its social organization, but more recently, studies of the dynamics of chiefdoms have shifted away from economic or material explanations. This study examines the relationship between social complexity and human stable carbon-isotope ratios as a measure of agricultural intensification for late prehistoric (after A.D. 1000) tribal and chiefdom-level societies of the Ohio Valley of eastern North America. We show that there is a strong association between social complexity and agricultural intensification (reflected in increased maize consumption) in this region during the late prehistoric period.

The fluoride contents of prehistoric bones can be used to determine the relative ages of the specimens with ease when fluoride content is measured using an ion selective electrode. Measurements of fluoride contents of ribs from prehistoric burials from the Angel Site, a large prehistoric village and ceremonial center in southwestern Indiana, demonstrate that fluoride dating can be used to determine the occupational chronology of a prehistoric site where other methods of dating are inapplicable.