Legacy Theses

Permanent URI for this collection

https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/100030

University of Calgary masters and doctoral theses submitted in paper format prior to the electronic thesis and dissertation program.

University of Calgary graduate alumni can make their thesis publicly available in PRISM by contacting digitalservices@ucalgary.libanswers.com

The electronic theses and dissertations on this site are for the personal use of students, scholars and the public. Any commercial use, publication or lending of them in libraries is strictly prohibited.

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 170

Open Access
3D micro-CT imaging of human cortical bone porosity: a novel method for estimating age at death
(2005) Cooper, David M. L.; Katzenberg, M. Anne; Hallgrimsson, Benedikt
Open Access
A Comparison of Plano complexes
(1985) Arnold, Thomas G.; Reeves, Brian O. K.
Open Access
A Comparison of two methods for estimating age at death from bone microstructure
(1991) Willows, Noreen D.; Katzenberg, M. Anne
This thesis was undertaken to assess the accuracy of two means of estimating age at death using microstructural quantification. The techniques that were chosen for comparison were the core method of Thompson and Kerley's method which requires a complete cross section of bone. It is important to assess if Thompson's method is as. accurate as Kerley's in estimating age at death because it requires the use of a much smaller piece of bone and is therefore less destructive. This has important archaeological implications because museum specimens or other rare skeletal materials can not be subjected to extensive damage. Prior to the undertaking of this thesis a comparative assessment of the two techniques had not been completed The accuracy of both methods was assessed on the femora from twenty four individuals of known age at death. These individuals were aged 21 to 90 years. Kerley's method was assessed using eighteen cross sections. Thompson's method was assessed using eighteen cross sections and six bone cores. The results of this research demonstrate that the two methods provide different age at death estimates. Kerley's method provides the best accuracy in estimating age at death both for the complete sample and for subsets of the sample. These subsets were males, females, individuals younger than 45 years of age and individuals older than 45 years of age. The accuracy of Kerley's method varies as a function of field size and the sex of the individual being examined. Certain combinations of these factors provide age estimates that are less accurate than provided by Thompson's method. Kerley's technique was assessed using field sizes similar to those suggested to have been used in his original research, in addition to a smaller field size. It became apparent that the application of a correction factor to compensate for differences in field size was not fully effective. For males, a disproportionately large number of osteons directly adjacent to the periosteal surface created corrected osteon counts in the small field size which exceeded those from the large field size. This created many errors in age estimation. The same phenomenon was not noted for females and age estimates from the smaller field size produced better age estimates for females. Different field sizes produced variation in the accuracy of estimating age at death in males and females suggesting that each sex remodels bone uniquely at the subperiosteal region. This conclusion needs to be assessed further in future studies. Both Kerley's and Thompson's methods are poor at assessing the age at death of the very old. Microstructural assessments of age at death might be limited by the nature of bone remodeling which varies extensively among the elderly. This large spread of values creates errors in age estimation when regression equations are derived from samples which include very old individuals. This error increases with higher order regression models and proved to be particularly problematic with Kerley's revised regression equation for fragments. The form of the regression equations for Kerley's and Thompson's methods are not consistent with the theoretical changes expected between bone parameters and age. This also leads to error in age estimation.
Open Access
A Faunal analysis of the Point Grey (DhRt5) site, Vancouver, B.C.
(1989) Unfreed, Wendy J.; Helmer, James W.
Open Access
A faunal approach to foodways at the Mint House-National Museum of Cultures, Mexico City, Mexico
(2012) Lopez-Forment, Angelica; McCafferty, Geoffrey G.
This thesis approaches colonial foodways in Mexico City using archaeological fauna! remains from the Mint House-National Museum of Cultures. The merging of ideologies and ingredients between Europeans and Mesoamericans resulted in the creation of a unique cuisine that reflected a diverse society in colonial Mexico. It was during the course of 484 years that these groups formed a rich and complex society. Each group contributed specific ingredients, inclinations, and experiences, creating new foodways that incorporated both inter-generational habitus and cultural capitals. Fauna! research at the Mint House was guided by three questions: were there food inclinations and economic distinctions among the inhabitants of the Mint House? Is there a species inclination among the inhabitants of the Mint House? If so, why? Aided with theories of practice, habitus, distinction, and cultural capital as well as zooarchaeological methods these questions are evaluated. Several intangible aspects of societies develop from social processes, including foodways, and they become visible through archaeological materials. By analyzing and describing excavated occupation layers and provenience of fauna! assemblage, as well as species identification, anatomical part identification, NISP, and MNI, I emphasize potentially quantifiable differences in the presence of mammal species in the Mint House's archaeological context. Over 11,000 bones were recovered from 32 pits from the "Project at the National Museum of Cultures -National Coordination of Historical Monuments (MNC-CNMH)". From these, 5473 diagnostic bones belonged to sheep (Ovis aries). The abundance of sheep remains, contrast with the notion that pig was the meat staple of colonial Mexico. This species inclinations indicates that social groups like Conversos, descendants of Jewish converted people who escaped the Spanish regime, were present in New Spain and that they also influenced Mexican foodways. Future analysis regarding the role of Conversos in colonial society, use of space as well as the importance of meat cuts needs to be done in order to comprehend the economic and social distinctions in colonial Mexico City.
Open Access
A geoarchaeological investigation of Simkin's Flat, Upper Basin, Northern Arizona
(2003) McNamee, Calla; Freeman, Andrea K. L.
Open Access
A multivariate spatial analysis of a Thule dwelling from Assuukaaq Island, northern Quebec
(1999) Farid, Emma Louise; Raymond, J. Scott
Open Access
A prehistoric soapstone quarry in Fleur de Lys, Newfoundland
(2001) Erwin, John Christopher; Raymond, J. Scott
Open Access
A Study of aspect marking in the copan inscriptions: a morphosyntactical approach
(1988) Williamson, Jacqueline; Kelley, David H.
Maya language grammars define the representation of time by the verb as a tense system. Script grammars, on the other hand, present the system as aspectual. This study analyzes the function of aspectual glyphs using a 'Morphosyntactical' procedure which looks at the syntax of the clause and of the verbal morphology. The glyphs examined were T.115, T.125, T.126, T.130, T.142, T.246, T.255, T.340, T.679, and T.683. The inscriptions used, come from the Classic Maya site of Copan, Honduras. This study used the split-ergative model (Schele 1982, Bricker 1986) to analyze clause syntax, and the model given by Kaufman and Norman (1984) to analyze the verbal morphology. This thesis concludes that the split-ergative model represents a more complex phenomenan than has been presented to date in the epigraphic literature. This study also suggests that the morphemes for completive aspect alternate with those for perfective aspect to communicate the transitivity status of the hieroglyphic verbal unit.
Open Access
A study of classic Maya priesthood
(2004) Zender, Marc Uwe; Mathews, Peter; Raymond, J. Scott
This study employs a conjunctive, interdisciplinary approach to contemporary iconographic, epigraphic and archaeological evidence to shed light on the role of religious specialists and religious practice in Maya society of the Classic Period (A.D. 250 - 900). Its central contribution is a thematic model of Classic Maya priesthood. While the existence of priests in Classic society has been questioned - and while some have seen the religious specialists and political leaders of the period as shamans - this study finds evidence for an elect group of professional worshippers who constituted a 'class apart', wearing distinctive vestments, propitiating deities in temples, producing liturgical documents (codices), and performing community-wide services on a regular, calendrical basis. Such traits are all characteristic of priests in universal comparison. Priests occupied various ranked offices since at least the outset of the Late Classic Period (A.D. 600), including: (1) ajk'uhuun or "worshipper", a propitiator of deities and keeper of codices, but also a court chaplain (parallel to the Colonial Yucatec ajk 'iin ); (2) yajawk'ahk' or "fire's vassal", primarily a warrior priest, but also responsible for incense ceremonies (parallel to the Aztec tlenamacac "fire priest"); and; (3) ti 'sakhuun "speaker of/for the white headband", a prophet and oracular priest ( cognate with the Colonial Yucatec chi'laan), intermediary betweens humans and gods, and also a spokesman for the king. Importantly, a number of prominent ixajk 'uhuun or "priestesses" are also known from the second half of the Late Classic Period (A.D. 700 - 800). The existence of a Classic Maya priesthood reveals hitherto unsuspected dimensions of the social, political and economic organization of Maya society. Like their Postclassic and Modem descendants, Classic priests were more than esteemed religious specialists, scribes and teachers; they also wielded considerable political and economic power. They commissioned their own monuments and temples, governed their own segmentary lineage compounds, and even acted as regents or stewards for young rulers. While most priests acknowledged subordination to their k 'uhulajaw or "holy lord" - himself the divine king and ex officio high priest - this information could be suppressed in private documents, and some priests served multiple rulers in tum. As such, the monumental commissions of priests and other non-royal nobles comprise a crucial, nominally independent register of historical information which reveal emic dimensions of resistance to royal ideology, and which can be profitably compared and contrasted with "official" royal history.
Open Access
A tale of chert with a side of shell: the preceramic occupation of Antigua, West Indies
(2005) de Mille, Christy Nicole; Kooyman, Brian P.
Alone of the Lesser Antillean islands, Antigua has a rich Preceramic archaeological record. The goal of this dissertation has been to develop our understanding of the Antiguan Preceramic through the synthesis and interpretation of available data. The data for this dissertation came from two main sources. The first is from excavations undertaken at the site of North Crabb's Bay. The second is a dataset collected by researcher Bruce Nodine. Site location on the island is heavily biased toward the northeastern coastline that offers the best marine resources and the closest access to the main chert source. Investigation of the Preceramic subsistence remains from Antigua reveals a pattern reproduced in many of the other Preceramic sites in the Lesser Antilles. Data from Antigua confirm previous models of a marine oriented subsistence strategy focussed on shellfish. A consistently observed pattern is a high degree of species selectivity displayed in the assemblages. It is suggested that little resource stress allowed these people to be highly selective. There is a long-term pattern of living well on the island and on other neighbouring islands as well. Antigua has abundant evidence of large blade production, rare outside of the Greater Antilles. Technological analysis undertaken here indicated a regularised and consistently patterned method of producing large percussion blades. A distinctive core maintenance flake appears characteristic of Preceramic blade production. The structured lithic production is not found in the tool assemblage. Generally, the expedient nature of the identified tools indicates a strategy of tool selection/use based on usable edges, as opposed to retouch toward a specific form. The correlation of the presence of blade production in areas like Antigua and the Greater Antilles that have the raw material to support such an industry is too perfect to be coincidental. It is possible that blade technology was part of the overall Preceramic cultural repertoire and was practiced in regions that had the raw material to support blade production. The lithic technological analysis presented here forms the basis upon which future work, as well as comparisons with other islands, can be attempted.
Open Access
A Whiskey trade frontier on the Northwestern plains
(1991) Kennedy, Margaret Anne; Reeves, Brian O. K.
Open Access
An Archaeological and paleoenvironmental correlation for the Kluane-Aishihik area, southwest Yukon, Canada
(1986) Stuart, Glenn S. L.; Helmer, James W.
Open Access
An ethnoarchaeological study of Chaci land-use in northwestern tropical lowland ecuador
(1997) Allum, Claire Paulette; Raymond, J. Scott
Open Access
An ethnoarchaeology of kusasi shrines, upper east region, Ghana
(1999) Mather, Charles Maurice; David, Nicholas C.
Open Access
An introduction to indus writing
(1998) Wells, Bryan; Kelley, David H.
Open Access
Animal production systems in neolithic central Europe
(1989) Glass, Margaret F.; Raymond, J. Scott
Open Access
Application of microdebitage analysis to examination of spatial patterning
(1983) Hull, Kathleen L. (Kathleen Louann), 1959-; Reeves, Brian O. K.
Microdebitage -- flakes of stone less than 1.0mm in maximum dimension resulting from lithic reduction or tool use -- comprise a new artifact category within contemporary archaeology. Initial studies in identification and methodology sug0est several research problems for which microdebitage analysis may provide ans??ers, but consideration of site formation processes and spatial theory indicates that microdebitage may be particularly informative for intra-site spatial analysis. Unlike "macrodebitage," which is subject to numerous processes that alter the relationship of artifact and activity area, microdebitage distributions may aid in distinguishing activity and disposal areas, as well as allowing assessment of "tool kits." Using modified procedures and identification criteria developed in the course of study at the Bow Bottom site in Calgary, Alberta, application of microdebitage analysis to examination of spatial patterning appears to be quite promising. Results from three excavated "tipi rings" indi- cate that reiterative cultural and individual patterns of intra-structure space use are evident. In general, com- parison of macrodebitage and microdebitage distributions suggests consistent patterns of activity, disposal, and alternate use not apparent in macroflake distributions alone. In addition, ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and ethnoarchaeological information all indicate that the patterns recognized microscopically tend to fit expected patterns of behaviour for tipi-dwelling peoples. Given the promising results of this pilot study, general application of microdebitage analysis to intra-site spatial archaeology for certain sites and under particular conditions appears to be a valuable interpretive tool.
Open Access
Applying communication theory to public archaeology
(2005) Kempenaar, Edward John; Dawson, Peter
With easily accessible mass communication technologies and advanced presentation software, archaeology is increasingly relying on more complex communication processes to engage the public. With little academic recognition, however, communication studies in archaeology have largely been limited to commentary and speculation. In this thesis, variables that affect the mass communication process of a web-based archaeological message were tested to ascertain what areas of communication theory archaeologists should be examining (Arctic archaeology was used as an example). It was found that when grade six elementary school students accessed and wrote about what they had learned from a website pertaining to archaeology, multiple factors including content, medium, communication dynamics, and technology affected choice and information retention. This thesis demonstrates that for archaeologists to effectively deliver and maintain control over the perception of their discipline, they need to understand the processes by which they communicate.
Open Access
Archaeological and geological evidence for the first peopling of Alberta
(2002) Gillespie, Jason David; Oetelaar, Gerald A.