Urbanism in Northern Tsimshian Archaeology

Authors

Andrew Martindale, University of British ColumbiaFollow
Bryn Letham, University of British Columbia
Kisha Supernant, University of Alberta
Thomas J. Brown, University of British ColumbiaFollow
Kevan Edinborough, University College London
Jonathan Duelks, Portland State UniversityFollow
Kenneth M. Ames, Portland State UniversityFollow

Published In

Hunter Gatherer Research

Document Type

Citation

Publication Date

12-2017

Abstract

We consider the provocative idea of whether urbanism as a condition or process is visible in Northern Tsimshian archaeology. We define the condition of urbanism through four traits, each of which we associate with measurable variables. We explore changes in these across the study area in 100-year time bins over 6000 years. We also consider urbanism as a process that includes five kinds of relations. We consider these through six chronological stanzas visible in our metric data. While there is evidence of changes towards urbanism, we argue that urbanism as a condition is not evident in our data. We propose that urbanism involves a suite of causes and trajectories with multiple potential outcomes, not all of which achieve the threshold of cities.

Locate the Document

http://dx.doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2017.8

DOI

10.3828/hgr.2017.8

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/23239

Citation Details

Martindale, A., Letham, B., Supernant, K., Brown, T. J., Edinborough, K., Duelks, J., & Ames, K. M. (2017). Urbanism in Northern Tsimshian archaeology. Hunter Gatherer Research, 3(1), 133-163.