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In a poorly understood yet recurring phenomenon, communities occupying diverse settings within a region may undertake large-scale migrations that cannot be easily attributed to single variables such as climate change. As a result, the study of these movements has increasingly focused on the distinct histories of localities to address how they may have articulated as large-scale abandonments. We adopt this micro-history perspective on the fourteenth to fifteenth century depopulation of a large portion of the North American Midwest and Southeast, popularly referred to as the Vacant Quarter. Our research on the Middle Cumberland drainage within the Vacant Quarter suggests that a significant exodus began slowly ca. 1300 CE, then accelerated extremely rapidly in the first half of the fifteenth century CE. This genesis of this trajectory seems to be related to a pattern of severe droughts, but it was brought to a close by social and demographic challenges such as endemic conflict and adverse health conditions. 

Abstract Before the arrival of Europeans, domestic cattle ( Bos taurus ) did not exist in the Americas, and most of our knowledge about how domestic bovines first arrived in the Western Hemisphere is based on historical documents. Sixteenth-century colonial accounts suggest that the first cattle were brought in small numbers from the southern Iberian Peninsula via the Canary archipelago to the Caribbean islands where they were bred locally and imported to other circum-Caribbean regions. Modern American heritage cattle genetics and limited ancient mtDNA data from archaeological colonial cattle suggest a more complex story of mixed ancestries from Europe and Africa. So far little information exists to understand the nature and timing of the arrival of these mixed-ancestry populations. In this study we combine ancient mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from a robust sample of some of the earliest archaeological specimens from Caribbean and Mesoamerican sites to clarify the origins and the dynamics of bovine introduction into the Americas. Our analyses support first arrival of cattle from diverse locales and potentially confirm the early arrival of African-sourced cattle in the Americas, followed by waves of later introductions from various sources over several centuries. 

Abstract Mississippian period ceramic assemblages in the Nashville Basin region of Tennessee are traditionally viewed as being overwhelmingly shell tempered. Our petrographic analyses of 30 ceramic sherds from three Middle Cumberland sites have revealed, however, the presence of grog, or crushed potsherds, in shell-tempered pastes in over 40% of our specimens. In our study, serving vessels are often tempered with both shell and grog, with one bowl rim containing solely grog. Cooking vessels tend to be tempered with coarse shell and contain only incidental grog. Grog tempering alongside shell has been only occasionally noted elsewhere in the regional literature, but the lack of its widespread recognition may be due to the difficulty of identification without the assistance of a petrographic microscope. It is not clear whether the addition of small grog particles to a shell-tempered paste offers any immediate functional advantages. Other studies suggest that grog temper could improve the workability of the clay, may reduce thermal shock, and may enhance a vessel's resistance to mechanical stress. The strong correlation of fine grog and shell temper with bowls, however, may constitute a low-visibility horizon marker for an extensive swath of the Late Mississippian culture area.