Recent criticisms of the use of historically and ethnographically recorded conflicts as models
for warfare in prehistoric times force archaeologists to reexamine assumptions about the
frequency, severity, and effects of intergroup fighting. In eastern North America, skeletons of
victims and palisaded settlements—the only information consistently available on intergroup
hostilities—indicate that the prevalence of conflicts varied greatly over time and space.
Occasionally the attacks, typically ambushes of small numbers of people, cumulatively�…

The archaeological and paleoclimate records spanning the period of human occupation in
Eastern North America are becoming linked with greater and greater precision. Researchers
examining both culture change and paleoclimate make use of similar temporal and
geographic scales, and collaborative multidisciplinary efforts are, as a result, highly
productive. Climate change, both abrupt and gradual, played a major role in the
development of prehistoric and early historic cultures in the region. Initial human�…