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Very little published information is available on the scientific identification of wood species used in the construction of boats in ancient Egypt. This paper deals with the scientific identification of wood species used in the construction of the deckhouse, canopy, and forecastle of King Khufu’s second wooden boat (4th Dynasty—Old Kingdom) in detail. This paper also discusses the principal technological characteristics of the identified woods, considering specifically their utilization for construction of the deckhouse, canopy, and forecastle. Almost all the woods used in the boat’s deckhouse, canopy, and forecastle were made of two imported species of wood (Cedrus libani A.Rich. and Juniperus sp.), with two native species (Ziziphus spina-christi (L.) Willd. and Vachellia sp.) also identified. The analysis most surprisingly revealed the presence of Ziziphus spina-christi (L.) Willd. in 25% of the analyzed forecastle samples, which was discovered for the first time for making cross beams in the construction of boats in ancient Egypt. Another intriguing aspect of the boat’s construction is the presence of Juniperus sp., which surprisingly showed that almost 85% of the analyzed samples were Juniperus sp., used in the deckhouse’s boards, frames, and cross beams. The data let us examine the specific employment of the wood species used in the parts of the boat, which evidenced that the identified woods were suitably used for the construction of the different parts of the deckhouse, canopy, and forecastle of the boat.

Support vector machine (SVM) and maximum entropy (MaxEnt) machine learning techniques are well suited to model the habitat suitability of species. In this study, SVM and MaxEnt models were developed to predict the habitat suitability of Juniperus spp. in the Southern Zagros Mountains of Iran. In recent decades, drought extension and climate alteration have led to extensive changes in the geographical occurrence of this species and its growth and regeneration are extremely limited in this area. This study evaluated the habitat suitability of Juniperus through spatial modeling and predicts appropriate regions for future cultivation and resource conservation. We modeled the natural habitat of Juniperus for an area of 700 ha in Sepidan Area in the Fars province using (1) data regarding the presence of the species (295 samples) collected through field surveys and GPS, (2) habitat soil information and indices derived from 60 soil samples collected in the study area, and (3) climatic and topographic datasets collected from various sources. In total, 15 conditioning factors were used for this spatial modeling approach. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves were applied to estimate the accuracy of the habitat suitability models produced by the SVM and MaxEnt techniques. Results indicated logical and similar area under the curve (AUC)-ROC values for the SVM (0.735) and MaxEnt (0.728) models. Both the SVM and MaxEnt methods revealed a significant relationship between the Juniperus spp. distribution and conditioning factors. Environmental factors played a vital role in evaluating the presence of Juniperus sp. as Max and Min temperatures and annual mean rainfall were the three most important factors for habitat suitability in the study area. Finally, an area with high and very high suitability for the future cultivation of Juniperus sp. and for landscape conservation was suggested based on the SVM model.

Support vector machine (SVM) and maximum entropy (MaxEnt) machine learning techniques are well suited to model the habitat suitability of species. In this study, SVM and MaxEnt models were developed to predict the habitat suitability of Juniperus spp. in the Southern Zagros Mountains of Iran. In recent decades, drought extension and climate alteration have led to extensive changes in the geographical occurrence of this species and its growth and regeneration are extremely limited in this area. This study evaluated the habitat suitability of Juniperus through spatial modeling and predicts appropriate regions for future cultivation and resource conservation. We modeled the natural habitat of Juniperus for an area of 700 ha in Sepidan Area in the Fars province using (1) data regarding the presence of the species (295 samples) collected through field surveys and GPS, (2) habitat soil information and indices derived from 60 soil samples collected in the study area, and (3) climatic and topographic datasets collected from various sources. In total, 15 conditioning factors were used for this spatial modeling approach. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves were applied to estimate the accuracy of the habitat suitability models produced by the SVM and MaxEnt techniques. Results indicated logical and similar area under the curve (AUC)-ROC values for the SVM (0.735) and MaxEnt (0.728) models. Both the SVM and MaxEnt methods revealed a significant relationship between the Juniperus spp. distribution and conditioning factors. Environmental factors played a vital role in evaluating the presence of Juniperus sp. as Max and Min temperatures and annual mean rainfall were the three most important factors for habitat suitability in the study area. Finally, an area with high and very high suitability for the future cultivation of Juniperus sp. and for landscape conservation was suggested based on the SVM model. DK W 1237-N23 (VLID)4494082

Petrakia juniperi sp. nov., a new species collected on Juniperus sp. differs from other species of Petrakia in the size of conidia and shape of the appendages., Journal of Cultivated Plants, Bd. 69 Nr. 5 (2017)

In this report, the results of data recovery efforts conducted for the Palo Verde to Pinal West transmission line project at the Gillespie Dam site, AZ T:13:18 (ASM), in the Gila Bend area of the Gila River are presented. The site is a prehistoric Hohokam-Patayan settlement with an overlay of Historic era material. Fieldwork primarily occurred within the construction staging area of a transmission tower. Although covering less than an acre, the staging area contained surprising numbers of prehistoric features, including numerous pithouses, a cobble-buttressed adobe structure, ramadas, a storehouse/granary, and myriad other feature types typical of the range of outdoor activities that would be associated with a residential locus in a Hohokam village. Chronological evidence indicates the locus was occupied from the beginning of the Sedentary period, well into the Classic period, or from the tenth century to sometime after the thirteenth century A.D. Three of the pithouses are among the largest ever excavated within the Hohokam cultural area; the adobe structure was also exceptionally large. The large structures formed a corridor through the center of the staging area, which was accentuated by a fronting, prepared caliche surface. It is these structures that are the essential project finding, providing important insights about village organization and activity at the Gillespie Dam site. In turn, the project results inform on larger prehistoric events occurring within the Gila Bend area. Fieldwork also included sampling of a historic canal, AZ T:14:143 (ASM), which skirts the edge of the river terrace scarp in the southwestern portion of the Gillespie Dam site. Archival research identified this channel as the Wolfley, or original, Gila Bend Canal. It was the first of several historic canals built on the eastern side of the Gila River north of Gila Bend. The Wolfley/Gila Bend canal operated intermittently between 1892 and 1895, and possibly as late as 1905. The study of the canal during this project provided a rare opportunity to compare the archaeological record of a canal with its documented history of constructions, management, and natural events. This document contains contributions by Jenny L. Adams, Elizabeth A. Bagwell, Tiffany Clark, Connie A. Darby, Michael W. Diehl, T. Kathleen Henderson, Gary Huckleberry, Christine H. Lange, Manuel R. Palacios-Fest, Stacy L. Ryan, M. Steven Shackley, Susan J. Smith, Pat. H. Stein, Sandra Wadsworth, and Joshua Watts.

The Roosevelt Community Development Study (RCD) involved the testing and excavation of 27 sites in the Lower Tonto Basin of central Arizona. This is one of three related data recovery projects undertaken in the Tonto Basin for the Bureau of Reclamation prior to the raising of the Roosevelt Lake dam. The results of the RCD project are presented in four Anthropological Papers of the Center for Desert Archaeology: Anthropological Papers No. 12 is the research design; Anthropological Papers No. 13 (two volumes) contains background information and the site descriptions; Anthropological Papers No. 14 (three volumes) includes the artifact and environmental analyses; and Anthropological Papers No. 15 presents the synthesis and conclusions. The project was situated within the Tonto National Forest and covered a four-mile, continuous area along the north bank of the Salt River. Sites within the project area exhibited a great range of functional, temporal, and, possibly, cultural diversity. These included two sites with platform mounds (the Meddler Point and Pyramid Point sites); a 10Q-room masonry pueblo (the Griffin Wash site); smaller masonry compounds (e.g., the Porcupine site); and pithouse hamlets and farmsteads (e.g., the Hedge Apple and Eagle Ridge sites). Temporal components ranged from the Early Ceramic period (A.D. 100-600), at Locus B of the Eagle Ridge site, through the Roosevelt phase (A.D. 1250-1350) of the Classic period. The Early Ceramic component of the Eagle Ridge site is now the earliest documented ceramic period site in the Tonto Basin and provides definitive evidence for an indigenous ceramic-using population. The project area was inhabited most intensively during the Roosevelt phase, when platform mounds, pueblo room blocks, and small masonry compounds were occupied. Architectural and artifact variability suggest the presence of several different cultural groups co-residing in the Tonto Basin at this time, and migration is believed to have been a significant process in Tonto Basin prehistory. The RCD project area was largely abandoned by A.D. 1325, prior to the large-scale aggregation that occurred during the Gila phase; very few Gila Polychrome sherds were recovered from project area sites. The mandate of the RCD project, as spedfied by the Bureau of Reclamation, was to investigate the temporal and developmental sequence of the prehistoric populations within this area. To meet these goals, six sites were intensively examined through full-scale excavation, and an extensive data set was gathered from the remaining 21 sites. The three volumes in Anthropological Papers No. 14 contain the artifact and environmental analyses. More than 150,000 artifacts were recovered from the RCD excavations. This volume (Volume 3) presents the paleobotanical and osteological data. Included are analyses of the pollen (Chapter 18), flotation (Chapter 19), faunal (Chapter 20), and mortuary (Chapter 21) assemblages. Data from the subsistence analyses are combined and synthesized in Chapter 22. Volume 1 of Anthropological Papers No. 14 presents the analyses of the chipped stone, ground stone, jewelry and personal ornament, and shell assemblages. The ceramic artifact assemblage is examined in Volume 2 More spedfic information on the individual sites and the project background can be found in Anthropological Papers No. 13. Anthropological Papers No. 15 integrates and synthesizes these data to provide a more inclusive view of the prehistoric occupation of the RCD project area and the Tonto Basin.

Archaeological test excavations have been conducted at a portion of La Ciudad de los Hornos (AZ U:9:71 (ASM)), a prehistoric multicomponent Hohokam village. The field work for this project, sponsored by AMCOR Investment Company, was undertaken during the fall of 1989 by Northland Research, Inc. pursuant to the proposed redevelopment of the Casa Fiesta trailer park. The Casa Fiesta project area consists of a 55-acre (22-ha), triangular lot. Archaeological testing consisted of cutting a series of backhoe trenches, resulting in the excavation of 9,442 ft. (2,878 m, 221 trenches) of trench or a roughly one percent sample of the project area. Thirty-seven prehistoric cultural features were identified. The remains represent a Hohokam occupation dating primarily to the Sedentary and Classic periods. Although the Casa Fiesta project area has been subject to a great deal of disturbance by agricultural and construction activities, the cultural features identified do not appear to have been impacted substantially by these activitites, but instead are fairly intact. With the possible exception of hornos and a few surfaces, most features appear not to have been truncated by agricultural activities. Testing results suggest that there is a great potential for these features and as yet unidentified features to yield data significant to the interpretation of Hohokam habitation and subsistence practices during the late Sedentary and Classic periods. This report includes contributions by Jennifer W. Gish, T. Kathleen Henderson, and Johna Hutira.

Archaeological Consulting Services, Ltd. (ACS) monitored the excavation of an 11.73 mi (18.88 km) long trench for the El Paso Natural Gas (EPNG) pipeline in the cities of Mesa, Tempe, and Chandler. Archaeological monitoring was recommended because of the likelihood of crosscutting prehistoric irrigation canals and the close proximity of Alta Vista, a prehistoric Hohokam habitation site (AZ U:9:48 (ASM)). The monitoring was conducted in order to document these cultural resources when they became exposed in the pipeline trench. A total of seven canals and six subsurface features were revealed in the pipeline trench. Two additional canals were identified in a sewer trench that was open at the time of the EPNG monitoring and that abutted the EPNG line. The file includes a copies of Linda Scott Cumming's Pollen Analysis of Three Canals on the El Paso Natural Gas (EPNG) Project and Manuel R. Palacios-Fest's Report on Nonmarine Ostracodes from El Paso Natural Gas (EPNG) Project, Tempe, Arizona, as appendices.

Under the sponsorship of the Bureau of Reclamation, the New Waddell Dam Borrow Areas Mitigative Data Recovery Project, more simply known as the Waddell Project, performed data recovery at 17 sites in the vicinity of Lake Pleasant, Arizona. Supplemental surveys conducted under the same contract added two sites to the inventory slated for investigation. The project area, composed of multiple survey areas, was spread across two drainages, the Agua Fria and New River, in what is considered the northern periphery of the prehistoric Hohokam culture. The sites studied included large agricultural fields, sometimes with associated surface masonry field houses; farmsteads with small numbers of pithouses; resource procurement and processing sites; and a single special-purpose crematory site. Research efforts were organized into three broad topic areas so that all project researchers, including specialists, could gear their investigations along the same lines. At the intra-drainage level, the focus was on the individual sites and their locations with respect to the physical environment and each other. Terminology employed for agricultural features and systems in the literature was reviewed and it was proposed that the use of terms be standardized. The topographic situation, source of water (e.g., river. wash, and/or runoff), and soil conditions were identified for the different agricultural systems investigated. The functions of the various agricultural feature types were assessed. It was found, for example, that linear rock alignments tend to slow the flow of water across the fields and/or direct the flow from one portion of a field to another. A model of the development of an agricultural system was employed that helps account for the functions of certain enigmatic features (i.e., field stones) and aspects of features (i.e., gaps between rocks in alignments). Contemporaneity of sites was difficult to establish as dating was less than satisfactory, but it was possible to discern differences between one early site (primarily Colonial period) and several later sites that appeared to form a late Sacaton-Soho phase community. At the inter-drainage level, a comparison of patterns at project sites in the two drainages was made to assess whether the drainages had been used by the same or different populations and whether specialization in subsistence resources had occurred as suggested by survey evidence. Results of ceramic and ground stone petrographic analyses as well as ethnobotanical analyses suggested the areas had been used by distinct populations and that although corn cultivation was universal, agave cultivation took place in the Agua Fria, but not the New River, drainage. Evidence also suggested that the New River study area had been used seasonally, whereas a strong case could be made for year-round occupation of the Agua Fria study area during the later time periods. At the inter-regional level, we studied how our sites fit with those surrounding them in the northern periphery and farther afield in both the Hohokam core area and northern Arizona. Differences found between the two study areas at the inter-drainage level were used to suggest that they had different focal sites. The Beardsley Canal site was identified as a prime candidate for the Agua Fria study area's focal site and AZ T:4:10 (ASM) was suggested as the hub for the New River study area. Little, if any, contact was indicated between sites in the New River study area investigated by ACS and those to the south examined earlier by Soil Systems Inc. Based on the decrease over time in the frequencies of artifacts of Hohokam derivation (i.e., buff ware ceramics, schist palettes, and shell artifacts), it was obvious that ties with the Hohokam core area decreased concomitant with an increase in exchange with northern Arizona populations. probably those in the Prescott area. Note that the volumes are included here as one file.