Jesse Ballenger | University of Arizona (original) (raw)
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Papers by Jesse Ballenger
This dissertation exists because of the opportunities, encouragement, and assistance provided by ... more This dissertation exists because of the opportunities, encouragement, and assistance provided by my committee members. Steve Kuhn and Mary Stiner were instrumental to my arrival in Tucson and in making my world a much bigger and more curious place. I thank Steve and Mary especially for helping me identify my research interests, and personally modeling how to test my questions. The gratitude I feel for C. Vance Haynes is unbearable. I thank him for his mentorship, and for being a constant source of intellectual and personal inspiration. I am likewise humbled to have had the opportunity to be inspired and challenged by Vance Holliday and Jay Quade. Vance Holliday supported a large amount of my field and laboratory work and has been a great friend and mentor. Jay Quade showed me new trails and gave me the confidence to follow them. More than a few people have gone a great distance out of their way for me. I thank my immediate and my extended family for their lifetime of support. Todd Pitezel was a surrogate father to our children during my military deployment. My conversations with Nieves Zedeño are always interesting and helped me conceptualize this study. Other friends and colleagues to whom I extend special gratitude include
The use of radiocarbon frequency distributions to reconstruct prehistoric human and animal popula... more The use of radiocarbon frequency distributions to reconstruct prehistoric human and animal populations must account for taphonomic loss and other factors that affect the archaeological and paleontological records. Surovell et al. (JAS, 36, 1715(JAS, 36, -1724 have recently proposed a volcanic-based correction factor for removing "taphonomic bias" from temporal frequency distributions. Analysis of 718 radiocarbon dates sampled from the alluvium of the San Pedro and Santa Cruz Rivers and their tributaries in Southeastern Arizona shows that discovery and scientific biases play an equally important role in the creation of radiocarbon frequency distributions, and that "taphonomic bias" has not been systematic through time. The latter principle is further demonstrated using a sample of 123 Pliocene to Clovis-age proboscideans from the San Pedro Valley. We propose an alternative model that is based on the nature of the stratigraphic record, with discovery bias, scientific bias, taphonomic loss, and the shape of the calibration curve all operating to influence the temporal frequency distribution of prehistoric phenomena.
Whether or not abrupt Younger Dryas climate change affected regional paleoenvironments and late P... more Whether or not abrupt Younger Dryas climate change affected regional paleoenvironments and late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer populations is an important topic in the archaeology of the American Southwest. This paper reviews multiple, age-resolved proxy evidence to gauge the magnitude and direction of Younger Dryas Chronozone (YDC) environmental changes in different settings and systems. There is no record of YDC pluvial lake highstands in Arizona or New Mexico, but there are impressive records of vegetation, faunal, stable isotope, and geomorphological change coincident with the YDC. These correlate with important adaptive changes in human hunting and land use, as revealed in the analysis of the spatiotemporal distribution of late Pleistocene hunting technologies. Clovis and Folsom projectile point distributions do not support extant models of paleoenvironmental conditions in these interpretations. Significant cultural changes that coincide with the YDC include the Clovis-to-Folsom transition, the demise of mammoth hunting and the development of a highly successful emphasis on bison, increased regionalization, and the abandonment of the northwestern Chihuahuan and the Sonoran deserts by mobile, big-game hunters.
American antiquity, Jan 1, 2007
Southeastern Archaeology, Jan 1, 1998
This dissertation exists because of the opportunities, encouragement, and assistance provided by ... more This dissertation exists because of the opportunities, encouragement, and assistance provided by my committee members. Steve Kuhn and Mary Stiner were instrumental to my arrival in Tucson and in making my world a much bigger and more curious place. I thank Steve and Mary especially for helping me identify my research interests, and personally modeling how to test my questions. The gratitude I feel for C. Vance Haynes is unbearable. I thank him for his mentorship, and for being a constant source of intellectual and personal inspiration. I am likewise humbled to have had the opportunity to be inspired and challenged by Vance Holliday and Jay Quade. Vance Holliday supported a large amount of my field and laboratory work and has been a great friend and mentor. Jay Quade showed me new trails and gave me the confidence to follow them. More than a few people have gone a great distance out of their way for me. I thank my immediate and my extended family for their lifetime of support. Todd Pitezel was a surrogate father to our children during my military deployment. My conversations with Nieves Zedeño are always interesting and helped me conceptualize this study. Other friends and colleagues to whom I extend special gratitude include
The use of radiocarbon frequency distributions to reconstruct prehistoric human and animal popula... more The use of radiocarbon frequency distributions to reconstruct prehistoric human and animal populations must account for taphonomic loss and other factors that affect the archaeological and paleontological records. Surovell et al. (JAS, 36, 1715(JAS, 36, -1724 have recently proposed a volcanic-based correction factor for removing "taphonomic bias" from temporal frequency distributions. Analysis of 718 radiocarbon dates sampled from the alluvium of the San Pedro and Santa Cruz Rivers and their tributaries in Southeastern Arizona shows that discovery and scientific biases play an equally important role in the creation of radiocarbon frequency distributions, and that "taphonomic bias" has not been systematic through time. The latter principle is further demonstrated using a sample of 123 Pliocene to Clovis-age proboscideans from the San Pedro Valley. We propose an alternative model that is based on the nature of the stratigraphic record, with discovery bias, scientific bias, taphonomic loss, and the shape of the calibration curve all operating to influence the temporal frequency distribution of prehistoric phenomena.
Whether or not abrupt Younger Dryas climate change affected regional paleoenvironments and late P... more Whether or not abrupt Younger Dryas climate change affected regional paleoenvironments and late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer populations is an important topic in the archaeology of the American Southwest. This paper reviews multiple, age-resolved proxy evidence to gauge the magnitude and direction of Younger Dryas Chronozone (YDC) environmental changes in different settings and systems. There is no record of YDC pluvial lake highstands in Arizona or New Mexico, but there are impressive records of vegetation, faunal, stable isotope, and geomorphological change coincident with the YDC. These correlate with important adaptive changes in human hunting and land use, as revealed in the analysis of the spatiotemporal distribution of late Pleistocene hunting technologies. Clovis and Folsom projectile point distributions do not support extant models of paleoenvironmental conditions in these interpretations. Significant cultural changes that coincide with the YDC include the Clovis-to-Folsom transition, the demise of mammoth hunting and the development of a highly successful emphasis on bison, increased regionalization, and the abandonment of the northwestern Chihuahuan and the Sonoran deserts by mobile, big-game hunters.
American antiquity, Jan 1, 2007
Southeastern Archaeology, Jan 1, 1998