David Wright

Articles in Peer Reviewed Journals

• Wright, David K.(In press, 2019) Long-term dynamics of pastoral ecology in northern Kenya: An old model for new resilience. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2019.101068.
• Wright, David K.; MacEachern, Scott; Ambrose, Stanley H.; Choi, Jungyu; Choi, Jeong-Heon; Lang, Carol; Wang, Hong (In press, 2019) Iron Age landscape changes in the Benoué River Valley, Cameroon. Quaternary Research https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2019.25.
• Thompson, Jessica C.; Mackay, Alex; Nightingale, Sheila; Wright, David K.; Choi, Jeong-Heon; Welling, Menno; Blackmore, Hari; Gomani-Chindebvu, Elizabeth (2018) Ecological risk, demography, and technological complexity in the Late Pleistocene of northern Malawi: Implications for geographical patterning in the Middle Stone Age. Journal of Quaternary Science 33(3):261-284.
• Wright, David K. (2017) Accuracy vs. precision: Understanding potential errors from radiocarbon dating on African landscapes. African Archaeological Review 34(3):303-319.
• Wright, David K. (2017) Humans as agents in the termination of the African Humid Period. Frontiers in Earth Science5(4):DOI: 10.3389/feart.2017.00004.
• Wright, David K.; Thompson, Jessica C.; Schilt, Flora; Cohen, Andrew S.; Choi, Jeong-Heon; Mercader, Julio; Nightingale, Sheila; Miller, Christopher; Mentzer, Susan; Walde, Dale; Welling, Menno; Gomani-Chindebvu, Elizabeth (2017) Approaches to Middle Stone Age landscape archaeology in tropical Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science (Special issue: Geoarchaeology of the Humid Tropics; Michael Morley and Paul Goldberg, [Eds.]) 77:64-77.
• Kim, Jangsuk; Wright, David K.; Lee, Youngseon; Lee, Jaeyong; Choi, Seonho; Kim, Junkyu; Ahn, Sung-Mo; Choi, Jongtaik; Seong, Chuntaek; Hwang, Jaehoon; Yang, Hyemin; Yang, Jiwon (2016) AMS dates from two archaeological sites of Korea: Blind tests. Radiocarbon 58(1):1-16.
• Wright, David K.; Forman, Steven L.; Kiura, Purity; Bloszies, Christopher; Beyin, Ammanuel (2015) Lakeside view: Socio-cultural responses to changing water levels of Lake Turkana, Kenya. African Archaeological Review (Special issue: New Environmental Research and Techniques in Africa; Roderick McIntosh, Jean Maley, and Robert Vernet, [Eds.]) 32(2):335-367.
• Bloszies, Christopher; Forman, Steven L.; Wright, David K. (2015) Water level history for Lake Turkana, Kenya in the past 15,000 years and a variable transition from the African Humid Period to Holocene aridity. Global and Planetary Change 132:64-76.
• Wright, David K.; MacEachern, Scott; Lee, Jaeyong (2014) Analysis of feature intervisibility and cumulative visibility using GIS, Bayesian and spatial statistics: A study from the Mandara Mountains, northern Cameroon. PLoS ONE 9(11):e112191. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0112191.
• Wright, David K.; Thompson, Jessica C.; Mackay, Alex; Welling, Menno; Forman, Steven L.; Price, Gilbert; Zhao, Jian-xin; Cohen, Andrew S.; Malijani, Oris;Gomani-Chindebvu, Elizabeth (2014) Renewed geoarchaeological investigations of the “Elephant Butchery Site” at Mwanganda's Village, Karonga, Malawi. Geoarchaeology 29(2):98-120.
• Wright, David K.; Waters, Michael R.; Loendorf, Chris; Woodson, M. Kyle; Miles, Wesley D.; Darling, J. Andrew (2013) Late Archaic wells on the Gila River Indian Community, Arizona. Journal of Archaeological Science 40(1):45-57.
• Thompson, Jessica C.; Mackay, Alex; Wright, David K.; Welling, Menno; Greaves, Amanda; Gomani-Chindebvu, Elizabeth; Simengewa, Davie (2012) Renewed investigations into the Middle Stone Age of northern Malawi. Quaternary International 270:129-139.
• Wright, David K.; Forman, Steven L.; Waters, Michael R.; Ravesloot, John C. (2011) Holocene eolian activity as a proxy for broad-scale landscape change on the middle Gila River, Arizona. Quaternary Research 76:10-21.
• Wright, David K. (2011) Frontier animal husbandry in the Northeast and East African Neolithic: A multiproxy paleoenvironmental and paleodemographic study. Journal of Anthropological Research 67(2):213-244.
• Wright, David K.; Forman, Steven L.; Kusimba, Chapurukha M.; Pierson, James; Gomez, Jeanette; Tattersfield, Peter (2007) Stratigraphic and geochronological context of human habitation along the Galana River, Kenya. Geoarchaeology 22(7):709-730.  
• Wright, David K. (2007) Tethered mobility and riparian resource exploitation among Neolithic hunters and herders in the Galana River Basin, Kenyan Coastal Lowlands. Environmental Archaeology 12(1):25-47.
• Wright, David K. (2005) New perspectives on early regional interaction networks in East Africa: A view from Tsavo National Park, Kenya. African Archaeological Review 15(3):111-141.

Book chapters

• Wright, David K. (2017) East and southern African Neolithic: Geography and overview. In Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, C. Smith (Ed.). Springer, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_1888-2.
• Wright, David K.(2017) Palaeoenviromental science: Methods. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, Thomas Spear (Ed.). Oxford University Press, Oxford. DOI:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.211
• Wright, David K. (2017) Other radiometric dating techniques (within Chapter 5: Ecofacts and related studies). In Field Manual for African Archaeology/Manuel de Terrain en Archéologie Africaine, Alexandre Livingstone Smith, Els Cornelissen, Olivier Gosselain, Scott MacEachern (Eds.). Pp. 35-40 / 237-242. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Brussels.
• Wright, David K. (2017) Relative dating techniques (within Chapter 5: Ecofacts and related studies). In Field Manual for African Archaeology/Manuel de Terrain en Archéologie Africaine, Alexandre Livingstone Smith, Els Cornelissen, Olivier Gosselain, Scott MacEachern (Eds.). Pp. 41-43 / 243-246. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Brussels.
• Wright, David K. (2013) Fits and starts: Why did domesticated animals ‘trickle’ before they ‘splashed’ into Sub-Saharan Africa? In Comparative Archaeology and Paleoclimatology: Socio-cultural Responses to a Changing World, M. O. Baldia, T. Perttula, and D. Frink (Eds.). BAR International Series 2456. Pp. 63-82. Archaeopress, Oxford.

• Wright, David (2020). Spatial modeling of archaeological site locations based on summed probability distributions and hot-spot analyses: A case study from the Three Kingdoms Period, Korea. Journal of Archaeological Science.  ISSN 0305-4403.  113 . doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2019.105036 Vis sammendrag

  Archaeologists typically use radiocarbon ages to date human activities on archaeological sites. However, radiocarbon ages can also serve as independent proxies for human demographic patterns through space and time. Spatial modeling of archaeological data often involves taking diachronic datasets and developing synchronic views of the distribution of cultural patterns. Here, we evaluate spatial dynamics of human activity areas assayed by radiocarbon ages in the Baekje Kingdom of Korea before and after the invasion of Koguryeo, which is historically documented as occurring in AD 475. The statistical techniques used in this research apply spatial autocorrelations on archaeological sites with weighted attributes from summed probability distributions (SPDs) to evaluate regional scale diachronic changes from radiocarbon datasets. Ripley's K analysis shows an increasing tendency toward clustering of weighted SPD attributes from sites after AD 325. The Getis-Ord Gi* statistic shows the changing hot spots of Baekje settlement shift prior and concurrent to the establishment of a military zone in northern Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. The settlement systems realign from clusters in the north and south of the province to clusters in the southeast with avoidance of the north.

• Wright, David (2019). Archaeological assessment reveals Earth’s early transformation through land use. Science.  ISSN 0036-8075.  365, s 897- 902 . doi: 10.1126/science.aax1192 Vis sammendrag

  Environmentally transformative human use of land accelerated with the emergence of agriculture, but the extent, trajectory, and implications of these early changes are not well understood. An empirical global assessment of land use from 10,000 years before the present (yr B.P.) to 1850 CE reveals a planet largely transformed by hunter-gatherers, farmers, and pastoralists by 3000 years ago, considerably earlier than the dates in the land-use reconstructions commonly used by Earth scientists. Synthesis of knowledge contributed by more than 250 archaeologists highlighted gaps in archaeological expertise and data quality, which peaked for 2000 yr B.P. and in traditionally studied and wealthier regions. Archaeological reconstruction of global land-use history illuminates the deep roots of Earth’s transformation and challenges the emerging Anthropocene paradigm that large-scale anthropogenic global environmental change is mostly a recent phenomenon.

• Wright, David (2019). Late Middle Stone Age Behavior and Environments at Chaminade I (Karonga, Malawi). Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology.  ISSN 2520-8217.  2, s 258- 297 . doi: 10.1007/s41982-019-00035-3 Vis sammendrag

  The African Middle Stone Age (MSA, typical range ~ 320–30 ka) has been the subject of intense research interest in recent decades as a culture-chronological Unit associated with the emergence and dispersal of our species. Recent results of this work have shown that sites designated as “MSA” contain common approaches to lithic reduction, but that within this rubric, there is much diversity in overall assemblage characteristics and the timing of their appearance across the continent. As researchers recover more data from more sites, especially from undersampled geographic regions, this more complex picture of the MSA reveals technological and other behavioral diversity in early modern human populations that may inform about the ultimate success of our species. Here we add to this growing database by describing the environmental context and characteristics of two concentrations of stone artifacts from the late MSA (~ 43–21 ka) open-air locality of Chaminade-I (CHA-I), near the town of Karonga in northern Malawi. The CHA-I lithic artifacts show a flexible approach to stone tool production and use that is common to assemblages in Karonga but distinctive from MSA sites reported elsewhere. Radial and minimally reduced cores typify an unelaborated lithic assemblage, in which raw material choice is driven by toolstone clast size and shape rather than preferential use or treatment of specific materials, as found in MSA assemblages in the East African Rift, South Africa, and the North African coast. Lithic reduction at CHA-I took place within a woody, riparian context embedded within a more open woodland landscape. Most artifacts occurred in near-channel sandy deposits dated to ~ 41 ka, and were buried under alluvial fan deposits that began aggrading by at least ~ 21 ka and continued beyond ~ 5.5 ka within a grassy, open landscape. The site’s late MSA age and lack of elaboration in lithic technology challenges straightforward ideas of increasing complexity in human technological behavior over time and provides important insight into the diversity of MSA technologies and the environmental conditions in which they existed.

• Wright, David (2019). Long-term dynamics of pastoral ecology in northern Kenya: An old model for new resilience. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.  ISSN 0278-4165.  55 . doi: 10.1016/j.jaa.2019.101068 Vis sammendrag

  As the pace of global climate change accelerates, residents of the arid and semi-arid lands of northern Kenya face significant obstacles to maintain viable communities. Colonial and post-colonial political governance and economic models have broken down traditional mechanisms for coping with ecological stress. An archaeological example from the Chalbi Desert is presented as evidence of longue-durée persistence of human occupations through extreme climatic fluctuations. Occupations spanning from ca. 5000 to 600 years BP indicate the presence of robust regional exchange networks and either continuous or repeated occupation of this hot, dry, mosaic woodland. These systems are contrasted against the extrinsically imposed models that began in the late 1800s with the arrival of colonialism in which political economies are more focused on ethnic-territorial and global interests rather than regional cooperation. A long-term ecological model on how traditional systems evolved to cope with vulnerability associated with extreme climate conditions is needed to build resilient communities.

• Wright, David; MacEachern, Scott; Ambrose, Stanley H; Choi, Jungyu; Choi, Jeong-Heon; Lang, Carol & Wang, Hong (2019). Iron Age landscape changes in the Benoué River Valley, Cameroon. Quaternary Research.  ISSN 0033-5894.  92(2), s 323- 339 . doi: 10.1017/qua.2019.25 Vis sammendrag

  The introduction of agriculture is known to have profoundly affected the ecological complexion of landscapes. In this study, a rapid transition from C3 to C4 vegetation is inferred from a shift to higher stable carbon (13C/12C) isotope ratios of soils and sediments in the Benoué River Valley and upland Fali Mountains in northern Cameroon. Landscape change is viewed from the perspective of two settlement mounds and adjacent floodplains, as well as a rock terrace agricultural field dating from 1100 cal yr BP to the recent past (<400 cal yr BP). Nitrogen (15N/14N) isotope ratios and soil micromorphology demonstrate variable uses of land adjacent to the mound sites. These results indicate that Early Iron Age settlement practices involved exploitation of C3 plants on soils with low δ15N values, indicating wetter soils. Conversely, from the Late Iron Age (>700 cal yr BP) until recent times, high soil and sediment δ13C and δ15N values reflect more C4 biomass and anthropogenic organic matter in open, dry environments. The results suggest that Iron Age settlement practices profoundly changed landscapes in this part of West Africa through land clearance and/or utilization of C4 plants.