Roger Colten | Yale University (original) (raw)

Papers by Roger Colten

Research paper thumbnail of Faunal Remains from the Archaic and Archaic Ceramic Site of Vega Del Palmar, Cuba

The earliest occupants of Cuba were hunter-gatherers that arrived from Central America approximat... more The earliest occupants of Cuba were hunter-gatherers that arrived from Central America approximately 5,000 years ago. While the broad outlines of Cuban prehistory are known, a lack of quantified faunal data and a limited number of radiocarbon dates hinder our ability to describe the subsistence economy in local and regional contexts. In this paper we present new vertebrate faunal data and radiocarbon dates from the pre-ceramic and early ceramic site of Vega del Palmar which is located near Cienfuegos on the south coast of Cuba, comparing the Archaic occupation with ceramics to the Archaic occupation that lacks ceramics. Les premiers occupants de Cuba étaient des chasseurs-cueilleurs qui sont arrivés d'Amérique centrale il ya environ 5000 années. Alors que un aperçu général de la préhistoire cubaine est connus, un manque de données faunistiques quantifiés et un nombre limité de dates radiocarbone entravent notre capacité à décrire l'économie de subsistance dans des contextes ...

Research paper thumbnail of Faunal Remains from the Archaic and Archaic Ceramic Site of Vega Del Palmar, Cuba

The earliest occupants of Cuba were hunter-gatherers that arrived from Central America approximat... more The earliest occupants of Cuba were hunter-gatherers that arrived from Central America approximately 5,000 years ago. While the broad outlines of Cuban prehistory are known, a lack of quantified faunal data and a limited number of radiocarbon dates hinder our ability to describe the subsistence economy in local and regional contexts. In this paper we present new vertebrate faunal data and radiocarbon dates from the pre-ceramic and early ceramic site of Vega del Palmar which is located near Cienfuegos on the south coast of Cuba, comparing the Archaic occupation with ceramics to the Archaic occupation that lacks ceramics. Les premiers occupants de Cuba étaient des chasseurs-cueilleurs qui sont arrivés d'Amérique centrale il ya environ 5000 années. Alors que un aperçu général de la préhistoire cubaine est connus, un manque de données faunistiques quantifiés et un nombre limité de dates radiocarbone entravent notre capacité à décrire l'économie de subsistance dans des contextes ...

Research paper thumbnail of Caribbean Archaic Faunal Exploitation: Analysis of Museum Collections

The 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of Prehistoric Vertebrate Faunal Exploitation On Cuba

The 85th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Atlanta, GA, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of Archaic Era Vertebrate Faunal Remains from Cuba

The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of Monkeys on the Islands and Coasts of Paradise

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Aug 18, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of Perspectives on Early Hunter-Gatherers of the California Coast

Hunter-Gatherers of Early Holocene Coastal California

Research paper thumbnail of An Archaeological Context for Early Holocene Studies on the California Coast

Hunter-Gatherers of Early Holocene Coastal California, 1991

Research paper thumbnail of Were Hutia Domesticated in the Caribbean

Research paper thumbnail of Museum Collections and Archaic Era Vertebrate Faunal Remains from Cuba

Environmental Archaeology, 2018

Museum collections are an underutilised source of environmental archaeological data. Curated coll... more Museum collections are an underutilised source of environmental archaeological data. Curated collections often contain faunal and floral remains that can be analysed using new methods and to address various research questions. For example, the broad patterns of Archaic or preceramic subsistence adaptations are not well known for the Caribbean region, and for Cuba in particular, due to the ecological variability among the islands and limited, quantified faunal data from radiocarbon-dated sites. To address these issues, we present quantified vertebrate faunal data and new radiocarbon dates from museum-curated collections from three Cuban sites. Las Obas, La Vega del Palmar, and Los Caracoles are Archaic, dating between roughly 350 BC to AD 630, although Vega del Palmar contains Pre-Arawak Pottery Horizon ceramics. The three assemblages include a diversity of taxa from several habitats, including various species of hutia (Capromyidae). The taxonomy of these rodents varies among the sites as do the proportions of other taxa. In addition to abundant hutia, the sites' occupants exploited an array of fish, birds, reptiles and other mammals, including manatee. We compare the sites faunal assemblages and discuss their ecological significance as well as their place in Cuban prehistory.

Research paper thumbnail of Faunal Remains from the Archaic and Archaic with Ceramic Site of Vega del Palmar, Cuba

Research paper thumbnail of Reassessing the chronology of Glen Annie Canyon site (CA-SBA-142)

Research paper thumbnail of Preceramic Faunal Exploitation at the Las Obas Site, Cuba

Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, 2009

In 1956 Paul Hahn excavated two trenches at the preceramic site of Las Obas near Manzanillo in so... more In 1956 Paul Hahn excavated two trenches at the preceramic site of Las Obas near Manzanillo in southeastern Cuba. Our analysis of vertebrate faunal remains from this site shows that while the assemblage from Las Obas is dominated by the remains of hutia, bones of fish, birds and reptiles are also well represented. This paper focuses on the ecological and economic implications of the vertebrate faunal assemblage from Las Obas and also presents two new radiocarbon dates for the site.

Research paper thumbnail of Using Mitogenomes to Explore the Social and Ecological Contexts of Crocodile Mummification in Ancient Egypt

Bulletin of The Peabody Museum of Natural History, Apr 21, 2022

Abstract We used isotopic and genomic data to explore the ecological and social context of cultur... more Abstract We used isotopic and genomic data to explore the ecological and social context of cultural practices associated with the mummification of crocodiles in ancient Egypt. Ancient DNA was recovered from four mummified crocodile hatchlings held in the collections of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University. Previous genetic analyses of crocodile mummies have indicated that most mummies represent the newly resurrected taxon, Crocodylus suchus Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1807. However, mitogenomic data for the Yale Peabody Museum mummies indicates that these specimens represent the first genomically authenticated representatives of the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus Laurenti, 1768) in museum collections. We explore these findings within the broader context of modern and historical distributions of both crocodile species and the potential implications for our understanding of funerary practices involving crocodiles in ancient Egypt.

Research paper thumbnail of Backroom treasures: CT scanning of two ibis mummies from the Peabody Museum collection

Museum collections of Egyptian human and animal mummies have great potential for research and mus... more Museum collections of Egyptian human and animal mummies have great potential for research and museums often curate larger collections than those on exhibit. Scheduling access to medical imaging facilities is often complicated for mummies on display because of the important environmental controls under which they are kept. Collections in storage are often more readily available in terms of time and physical access than those on exhibit. In the Fall of 2010, two Egyptian ibis mummies from Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History, not currently on display, were made available for computed tomography (CT) scans at the Quinnipiac University’s Diagnostic Imaging Program and Bioanthropology Research Institute. These ibises varied in position, were dispatched in a similar manner (spinal fracture), and demonstrated complete evisceration with replacement of a packet made up of the gizzard and its contents. Application of CT to the study of mummified remains allows for detailed three-dimension...

Research paper thumbnail of A genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean

Research paper thumbnail of Museum Collections and Archaic Era Vertebrate Faunal Remains from Cuba

Environmental Archaeology, 2018

Museum collections are an underutilised source of environmental archaeological data. Curated coll... more Museum collections are an underutilised source of environmental archaeological data. Curated collections often contain faunal and floral remains that can be analysed using new methods and to address various research questions. For example, the broad patterns of Archaic or preceramic subsistence adaptations are not well known for the Caribbean region, and for Cuba in particular, due to the ecological variability among the islands and limited, quantified faunal data from
radiocarbon-dated sites. To address these issues, we present quantified vertebrate faunal data and new radiocarbon dates from museum-curated collections from three Cuban sites. Las Obas, La Vega del Palmar, and Los Caracoles are Archaic, dating between roughly 350 BC
to AD 630, although Vega del Palmar contains Pre-Arawak Pottery Horizon ceramics. The three assemblages include a diversity of taxa from several habitats, including various species of hutia (Capromyidae). The taxonomy of these rodents varies among the sites as do the
proportions of other taxa. In addition to abundant hutia, the sites’ occupants exploited an array of fish, birds, reptiles and other mammals, including manatee. We compare the sites faunal assemblages and discuss their ecological significance as well as their place in Cuban
prehistory.

Research paper thumbnail of La explotación precerámica de la fauna en el sitio Las Obas, Cuba

… digital de Arqueología de Cuba y el …, Jan 1, 2009

Research paper thumbnail of Petriolo III South: Implications for the Transition to Agriculture In Tuscany

Current …, Jan 1, 1992

Page 1. 328 I CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY RAjAGURU, s. N. 1970. Studies in the Late Pleistocene of the M... more Page 1. 328 I CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY RAjAGURU, s. N. 1970. Studies in the Late Pleistocene of the Mula Mutha Valley. Ph.D. diss., Poona University, Pune, India. . 1973. "Late Pleistocene climatic changes in Western In-dia," in Radiocarbon and Indian archaeology. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Prehistoric Shellfish Exploitation Around the Goleta Lagoon, California

Journal of California and Great Basin anthropology

The reconstruction and interpretation of prehistoric subsistence has been a focus of Santa Barbar... more The reconstruction and interpretation of prehistoric subsistence has been a focus of Santa Barbara-area archaeology for many years, and the analysis of faunal remains is an integral part of this research. Shellfish remains are an abundant and visible constituent of local sites. The role of shellfish in subsistence, and their relative contribution to the prehistoric diet, have been topics of recent literature (Erlandson 1988a;. To understand the role of shellfish in the prehistoric diet, it is necessary to document the nature of shellfish remains in archaeological sites.

Research paper thumbnail of Faunal Remains from the Archaic and Archaic Ceramic Site of Vega Del Palmar, Cuba

The earliest occupants of Cuba were hunter-gatherers that arrived from Central America approximat... more The earliest occupants of Cuba were hunter-gatherers that arrived from Central America approximately 5,000 years ago. While the broad outlines of Cuban prehistory are known, a lack of quantified faunal data and a limited number of radiocarbon dates hinder our ability to describe the subsistence economy in local and regional contexts. In this paper we present new vertebrate faunal data and radiocarbon dates from the pre-ceramic and early ceramic site of Vega del Palmar which is located near Cienfuegos on the south coast of Cuba, comparing the Archaic occupation with ceramics to the Archaic occupation that lacks ceramics. Les premiers occupants de Cuba étaient des chasseurs-cueilleurs qui sont arrivés d'Amérique centrale il ya environ 5000 années. Alors que un aperçu général de la préhistoire cubaine est connus, un manque de données faunistiques quantifiés et un nombre limité de dates radiocarbone entravent notre capacité à décrire l'économie de subsistance dans des contextes ...

Research paper thumbnail of Faunal Remains from the Archaic and Archaic Ceramic Site of Vega Del Palmar, Cuba

The earliest occupants of Cuba were hunter-gatherers that arrived from Central America approximat... more The earliest occupants of Cuba were hunter-gatherers that arrived from Central America approximately 5,000 years ago. While the broad outlines of Cuban prehistory are known, a lack of quantified faunal data and a limited number of radiocarbon dates hinder our ability to describe the subsistence economy in local and regional contexts. In this paper we present new vertebrate faunal data and radiocarbon dates from the pre-ceramic and early ceramic site of Vega del Palmar which is located near Cienfuegos on the south coast of Cuba, comparing the Archaic occupation with ceramics to the Archaic occupation that lacks ceramics. Les premiers occupants de Cuba étaient des chasseurs-cueilleurs qui sont arrivés d'Amérique centrale il ya environ 5000 années. Alors que un aperçu général de la préhistoire cubaine est connus, un manque de données faunistiques quantifiés et un nombre limité de dates radiocarbone entravent notre capacité à décrire l'économie de subsistance dans des contextes ...

Research paper thumbnail of Caribbean Archaic Faunal Exploitation: Analysis of Museum Collections

The 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of Prehistoric Vertebrate Faunal Exploitation On Cuba

The 85th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Atlanta, GA, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of Archaic Era Vertebrate Faunal Remains from Cuba

The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of Monkeys on the Islands and Coasts of Paradise

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Aug 18, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of Perspectives on Early Hunter-Gatherers of the California Coast

Hunter-Gatherers of Early Holocene Coastal California

Research paper thumbnail of An Archaeological Context for Early Holocene Studies on the California Coast

Hunter-Gatherers of Early Holocene Coastal California, 1991

Research paper thumbnail of Were Hutia Domesticated in the Caribbean

Research paper thumbnail of Museum Collections and Archaic Era Vertebrate Faunal Remains from Cuba

Environmental Archaeology, 2018

Museum collections are an underutilised source of environmental archaeological data. Curated coll... more Museum collections are an underutilised source of environmental archaeological data. Curated collections often contain faunal and floral remains that can be analysed using new methods and to address various research questions. For example, the broad patterns of Archaic or preceramic subsistence adaptations are not well known for the Caribbean region, and for Cuba in particular, due to the ecological variability among the islands and limited, quantified faunal data from radiocarbon-dated sites. To address these issues, we present quantified vertebrate faunal data and new radiocarbon dates from museum-curated collections from three Cuban sites. Las Obas, La Vega del Palmar, and Los Caracoles are Archaic, dating between roughly 350 BC to AD 630, although Vega del Palmar contains Pre-Arawak Pottery Horizon ceramics. The three assemblages include a diversity of taxa from several habitats, including various species of hutia (Capromyidae). The taxonomy of these rodents varies among the sites as do the proportions of other taxa. In addition to abundant hutia, the sites' occupants exploited an array of fish, birds, reptiles and other mammals, including manatee. We compare the sites faunal assemblages and discuss their ecological significance as well as their place in Cuban prehistory.

Research paper thumbnail of Faunal Remains from the Archaic and Archaic with Ceramic Site of Vega del Palmar, Cuba

Research paper thumbnail of Reassessing the chronology of Glen Annie Canyon site (CA-SBA-142)

Research paper thumbnail of Preceramic Faunal Exploitation at the Las Obas Site, Cuba

Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, 2009

In 1956 Paul Hahn excavated two trenches at the preceramic site of Las Obas near Manzanillo in so... more In 1956 Paul Hahn excavated two trenches at the preceramic site of Las Obas near Manzanillo in southeastern Cuba. Our analysis of vertebrate faunal remains from this site shows that while the assemblage from Las Obas is dominated by the remains of hutia, bones of fish, birds and reptiles are also well represented. This paper focuses on the ecological and economic implications of the vertebrate faunal assemblage from Las Obas and also presents two new radiocarbon dates for the site.

Research paper thumbnail of Using Mitogenomes to Explore the Social and Ecological Contexts of Crocodile Mummification in Ancient Egypt

Bulletin of The Peabody Museum of Natural History, Apr 21, 2022

Abstract We used isotopic and genomic data to explore the ecological and social context of cultur... more Abstract We used isotopic and genomic data to explore the ecological and social context of cultural practices associated with the mummification of crocodiles in ancient Egypt. Ancient DNA was recovered from four mummified crocodile hatchlings held in the collections of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University. Previous genetic analyses of crocodile mummies have indicated that most mummies represent the newly resurrected taxon, Crocodylus suchus Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1807. However, mitogenomic data for the Yale Peabody Museum mummies indicates that these specimens represent the first genomically authenticated representatives of the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus Laurenti, 1768) in museum collections. We explore these findings within the broader context of modern and historical distributions of both crocodile species and the potential implications for our understanding of funerary practices involving crocodiles in ancient Egypt.

Research paper thumbnail of Backroom treasures: CT scanning of two ibis mummies from the Peabody Museum collection

Museum collections of Egyptian human and animal mummies have great potential for research and mus... more Museum collections of Egyptian human and animal mummies have great potential for research and museums often curate larger collections than those on exhibit. Scheduling access to medical imaging facilities is often complicated for mummies on display because of the important environmental controls under which they are kept. Collections in storage are often more readily available in terms of time and physical access than those on exhibit. In the Fall of 2010, two Egyptian ibis mummies from Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History, not currently on display, were made available for computed tomography (CT) scans at the Quinnipiac University’s Diagnostic Imaging Program and Bioanthropology Research Institute. These ibises varied in position, were dispatched in a similar manner (spinal fracture), and demonstrated complete evisceration with replacement of a packet made up of the gizzard and its contents. Application of CT to the study of mummified remains allows for detailed three-dimension...

Research paper thumbnail of A genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean

Research paper thumbnail of Museum Collections and Archaic Era Vertebrate Faunal Remains from Cuba

Environmental Archaeology, 2018

Museum collections are an underutilised source of environmental archaeological data. Curated coll... more Museum collections are an underutilised source of environmental archaeological data. Curated collections often contain faunal and floral remains that can be analysed using new methods and to address various research questions. For example, the broad patterns of Archaic or preceramic subsistence adaptations are not well known for the Caribbean region, and for Cuba in particular, due to the ecological variability among the islands and limited, quantified faunal data from
radiocarbon-dated sites. To address these issues, we present quantified vertebrate faunal data and new radiocarbon dates from museum-curated collections from three Cuban sites. Las Obas, La Vega del Palmar, and Los Caracoles are Archaic, dating between roughly 350 BC
to AD 630, although Vega del Palmar contains Pre-Arawak Pottery Horizon ceramics. The three assemblages include a diversity of taxa from several habitats, including various species of hutia (Capromyidae). The taxonomy of these rodents varies among the sites as do the
proportions of other taxa. In addition to abundant hutia, the sites’ occupants exploited an array of fish, birds, reptiles and other mammals, including manatee. We compare the sites faunal assemblages and discuss their ecological significance as well as their place in Cuban
prehistory.

Research paper thumbnail of La explotación precerámica de la fauna en el sitio Las Obas, Cuba

… digital de Arqueología de Cuba y el …, Jan 1, 2009

Research paper thumbnail of Petriolo III South: Implications for the Transition to Agriculture In Tuscany

Current …, Jan 1, 1992

Page 1. 328 I CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY RAjAGURU, s. N. 1970. Studies in the Late Pleistocene of the M... more Page 1. 328 I CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY RAjAGURU, s. N. 1970. Studies in the Late Pleistocene of the Mula Mutha Valley. Ph.D. diss., Poona University, Pune, India. . 1973. "Late Pleistocene climatic changes in Western In-dia," in Radiocarbon and Indian archaeology. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Prehistoric Shellfish Exploitation Around the Goleta Lagoon, California

Journal of California and Great Basin anthropology

The reconstruction and interpretation of prehistoric subsistence has been a focus of Santa Barbar... more The reconstruction and interpretation of prehistoric subsistence has been a focus of Santa Barbara-area archaeology for many years, and the analysis of faunal remains is an integral part of this research. Shellfish remains are an abundant and visible constituent of local sites. The role of shellfish in subsistence, and their relative contribution to the prehistoric diet, have been topics of recent literature (Erlandson 1988a;. To understand the role of shellfish in the prehistoric diet, it is necessary to document the nature of shellfish remains in archaeological sites.