The Fossil Hill Group

10/13/2026

After 40 years myself, most of this is quite true from my experience.

https://discoverwildscience.com/14-things-archaeologists-at-the-end-of-a-career-finally-say-aloud/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=referral&utm_id=52629143152160&utm_content=52629143186160&utm_term=52629143166360&utm_campaign=52629143152160&fbclid=Iwb21leAU7DfNjbGNrBTryfGV4dG4DYWVtATAAcGRvZgFhZGlkAAAv3a1kghhzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeksI2Pzsxxig8FdNaTu2eTsToR1t23NPw0R1edHmiJLKRojf4NXLrT-Yixzo_aem_Z0X7XeAo1GSWBwVyfHAfYw

Stick with us to the end: one field habit practiced by the most experienced diggers becomes a lesson in what archaeology really measures.

03/04/2026

Editorial:

https://phys.org/news/2026-01-canada-professional-archaeologists-economic-consequences.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawQVSWpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETE0T1hPamtIb0lqdXI5MHJ4c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHmJ6U4Xz3UUd33r8x8N4foC6HFVtHKDbOBaUfdLzMua_YLQP_hxu6bdOxnlN_aem_b_wNTVf35JkdijzoAGHefA

Canadian cultural resource management archaeologists—professional consultants involved in environmental assessment and compliance processes—are increasingly finding themselves in the public eye when their work intersects with the development or disaster response related infrastructure projects.

03/04/2026

For many North American archaeologists, these results come as no surprise.

Advances in global satellite-based remote sensing, big data, and machine learning are making large-scale geographic analysis increasingly accessibl...

10/02/2025

Today, the Fossil Hill Group says goodbye to Dr. Jane Goodall. Dr. Goodalls research into primate behaviour would make the entire world reflect on not only primates but all animals. The transferable aspects of this research impacted biology, psychology, ecology, and human evolutionary studies.

RIP Jane. You've done enough.

08/22/2025

Anthropology can inform modern practice....

Interest in bringing Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Western Science together to enhance climate and landscape resilience is growing rap...

07/11/2025

What the arctic Qimmit Dog can tell archaeologists about the past.

The Qimmeq (Greenland sled dog) has worked continuously with the Inuit in Greenland for more than 800 years. However, they now face drastic population declines caused by climate change, urbanization, and competition from snowmobiles. This study sequenced ...

06/21/2025

When genetics, archaeology, ethnography, and oral tradition merge...

Abstract

Paleoindians buried Spirit Cave Man in a Nevada cave, and archaeologists excavated these remains in 1940. Radiocarbon testing in 1996 dated the burial and associated grave goods as older than 10,700 years. Living just 10 miles from Spirit Cave, the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe filed a NAGPRA claim in 1997 requesting the repatriation of the Spirit Cave ancestor they call “The Storyteller.” This claim ignited a 20-year legal dispute that led the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe to make the gut-wrenching decision to permit DNA testing. This article documents a 10,000-year genetic continuity firmly linking Paleoindians at Spirit Cave to the Lovelock culture and that stronglysuggests continuities to modern Paiutes living there today with no population replacement. We explore the associated radiocarbon record of these dynamics to understand the syncopated population movements that responded to shifting resource distributions. Resilience theory provides an operational way to understand this extraordinary continuity through key concepts, including tipping points, early warning signals, sunk-cost effects, and loss-of-resilience hypotheses. The Spirit Cave case also underscores the moribund concepts and assumptions underlying a century of Great Basin anthropological study that misread this long-term episode of Indigenous resilience and survivance.



https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-antiquity/article/spirit-cave-resilience-how-do-we-explain-a-10000year-continuity/96180A6786D9F50B51985DBF1A35A397

Spirit Cave Resilience: How Do We Explain a 10,000-Year Continuity?

06/06/2025

For most Great Lakes Archaeologists, these findings come as no surprise.

Despite poor conditions, Indigenous growers used innovative techniques to grow large crops of corn, beans, and squash

06/02/2025

It is with sadness that I learned that Dr. Richard Preston (b. 1931 b. 2025) has passed away. Professor Preston was a Canadian pioneering ethnographer and ethno historian. He published extensively on Cree and Northern Ojibwe narratives. I had conducted independent research projects under his supervision both as an undergraduate and post degree student. His knowledge of structural analysis would help me make sense of my own research, both as an applied anthropologist and archaeologist. It is a sad day for me today.

Published and unpublished writings by Richard J. "Dick" Preston, Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 4L9; e-mail address [email protected] The listing is divided into 4 categories (James Bay Cree [about120 items], general [about 25 items],

05/30/2025

R.I.P.