CITATIONS AND REFERENCES


Scholars, scientists, and academics live by a harsh law: "Publish - or Perish." Meaning that the measure of their work is commonly by first seeing its way into print in their scholarly or relevant journals (newspapers and news mags don't "count" here), and secondly, by how often their work is cited (i.e. referred to) by others. The presumption being that cited work is the more significant work in a field, and more representative of the "cutting edge" and mainstream trends in the field...

Citations are where it's at - for standing, prestige, and (in the case of "degreed" career folk and those who depend on same for source of income - "where at the money's at," as well...!)

Citations are often given in a "citation index." There is a whole literature (cf extensive on the Web) just about this subject (!). The best known CI is the Science CI - citations of scientific literature. Individual authors can (often do) calculate their own "ratings" here; then there is a CI for publications, too: which pubs cite which pubs, and which authors, and which subjects cite other subjects (and/or themselves!) ad nauseam and ho-hum and all the rest. All quite esoteric and not really to the point here - other than to recognize in a very general way that when doing research, original research, investigations or whatever - that to have your work recognized or cited (positively!) by your peers in your own, or even different disciplines, is what "makes it all worthwhile."....

Here are some citations I have managed to find to my own work:

(They include my early paper on isolation and identification of plant remains at various archaeological sites in Connecticut; my identification of a drowned coastal midden that same state and recognition of same in USGS Quadrangle Map of area; comparison by Scottish colleagues of my described technologies (and inferences) at a prehistoric CT quartz quarry with their Neolithic finds in Shetland and the Western Isles; and several citations in the medical literature to my trephined skull from Spruce Swamp at Norwalk, CT. And to cap that "Emeritus" glow, and maintain a generally respectable Air-of-Antiquity about the whole business: I found that some of my reports (and those of others, too) are now for sale as "rare books" (!) and paper ephemera here and there on the Web... Not bad for an amateur, no? (Sigh).


1. Seeds Flotation Study...

Powell, B. 1981 Carbonized Seed Remains from Prehistoric Sites in Connecticut. Man in the Northeast 21: 75-80.
(...as cited in Prehistoric Plant Use in New England, David R. George, Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, n.d.)

2. Ditto...

"By employing flotation, Powell (1981) was able to identify the presence of numerous indigenous plant species from archaeological sites in southwestern Connecticut, some of which were recovered from Late Archaic contexts. The plant species he noted include weedy annuals such as Chenopodium, Amaranthus, pokeweed (Phytolacca americana), and smartweed (Polygonum persicaria); fruits such as grape (Vitis aestivalis) and deerberry (Vaccinum stamineum); and the remains of white oak (Quercus alba). Powell's study is important because it documents the use of indigenous plant species at a relatively early date and indicates that southern New England Native Americans understood the uses of local plants long before the introduction of maize and the advent of horticulture as we presently understand it."

(...in “A Long Row to Hoe: The Cultivation of Archaeobotany in Southern New England,” by David R. George, Dept. of Anthropology, Univ. of CT, Storrs (in) Archaeology of Eastern North America 25:175-190)

2A. Ditto...


(...cited in Bibliography of Aboriginal Archaeological Plant Food Remains from Eastern North America: 1901-1991 by R.A. Yarnell, T.O. Maher, M.Jean Black, (in) Research Report Number 11, Research Laboratories of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1993, p. 45)

3. Drowned Coastal Midden Study...






(...repro from a USGS (United States Geological Survey) Geologic Quadrangle Map, date unsure)

4. Early quarry study...


.8.5.1 Acquisition of raw material...
...As discussed in Section 3.1- Raw materials (above).... As removal of excess weight from quarried quartz plates or nodules mostly took place at or near the quarry or vein (Powell 1965),... this also suggests that the vein in question was in close vicinity to the settlement...

(...in Re-examination of the quartz artefacts from Scord of Brouster: a lithic assemblage from Shetland and its Neolithic context, by Torben Bjarke Ballin, Lithic Research, Banknock Cottage, Denny, Stirlingshire FK6 5NA, Scottish Archaeological Internet Report 17, 2005 www.sair.org.uk)

5. Ditto...


... Plane 1 separates the quartz vein into a number of relatively thin (2-15 cm), vertical, layers. In his presentation of the quartz quarry at Samp Mortar Reservoir, Connecticut, Bernard Powell suggests that, to prehistoric knappers, this tendency to form natural layers was a desired attribute in quartz:
'because of the flat-sided nature of quartz [ . . . ], the quarriers were able to secure a wide range of pieces having roughly parallel sides. These constituted natural cores, with ready-made striking and anvil platforms. It was a simple matter to set such pieces down on a nearby ledge, and begin at once to detach flakes through either direct or indirect per­cussion. Analysis of the refuse leaves little doubt that this was one of the main activities of the quarriers' (Powell 1965).

Between the various layers of quartz, the adjoining surfaces frequently develop a coating, probably de­posited ...

...Gummark in northern Sweden, Broadbent suggests that fire-setting formed part of the approach of the local quarries (Broadbent 1973; Broadbent 1979). This claim is based on the discovery of soot and charcoal in connection with the outcrops. In his paper on the quartz quarry at Samp Mortar Reser­voir, Connecticut, Powell 1965 rigorously refutes this: 'use of fire as a quarrying technique [of quartz] has a dubious reputation in the literature, and most authorities deny that it was ever used'. As fire­ setting has not been reported from other quartz quarries, and as experiments (Ballin in prep. e) regarding the" effect of fire on quartz suggest that direct fire makes this material disintegrate (thereby rendering it useless to a knapper), the author favours Powell's view. It is possible that the soot and charcoal reported by Broadbent simply derive from the quarriers' domestic fireplaces...

(...in The worked quartz vein at Cnoc Dubh, Uig parish, Isle of Lewis, Western Isles - Presentation and discussion of a small prehistoric quarry - by Torben Bjarke Ballin, Lithic Research, Banknock Cottage, Denny, Stirlingshire FK6 5NA, Scottish Archaeological Internet Report 11, 2004, www.sair.org.uk)

6. Offered as Rare Book Study...


Item Detailed
Information for Seller's item number: 009848
An Aboriginal Quartz Quarry at Samp Mortar Reservoir Fairfield Connecticut Bulletin the Archeological Society of New Jersey Author: Bernard W.Powell. Published by The Archeological Society of New Jersey New Jersey 1965. First American Edition Tall Stiff Card Covers Near Fine 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall Bound Scholarly Periodical. Price: US $20.00. Quantity available: 1."

(...from TomFolio.com.... Used and Rare Books, and Paper Ephemera...)

7. Ditto...


An Aboriginal Quartz Quarry at Samp Mortar Reservoir Fairfield Connecticut Bulletin the Archeological Society of New Jersey Bernard W.Powell $20.00 Max: 1

(...from Three Geese in Flight Books... Featuring Antiquarian, Used and Out-of-Print Books)


8. Cannon Foundry Study...

The Cannon Founders of Salisbury. (Salisbury, Connecticut) (Part 1) Includes related article on the seizure of a British post at Ticonderoga; PENTON Foundry Management and Technology 5/1/1997; Powell, B.W.
"An account of a little-known Connecticut iron foundry that played a key role in American history"

(...from a Website by HighBeam Research, Inc.):


9. Trephination study...


1: Science. 1970 Nov 13;170(959):732-4.
Aboriginal trephination: case from southern New England?
Powell BW.
(...as indexed in National Library for Medicine PMID: 5479628 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

10. Ditto...

Title:
"Fontanelle" in an adult
Footnotes in Print Edition:
(8) Aboriginal trephination: case from southern New England?. Powell BW. Science 1970 Nov 13;170(959):732-4. Pubmed Similars

(...from website all rights reserved John Sotos, M.D. "Zebra Cards")

11. Ditto...


PARIETAL FORAMINA, SYMMETRIC FORAMINA, PARIETALIA PERMAGNA; FPP, CATLIN MARKS, CRANIUM BIFIDUM, OCCULTUM CRANIUM BIFIDUM, HEREDITARY PARIETAL FORAMINA 1, INCLUDED; PFM1, INCLUDED

Gene map locus 11p11.2, 5q34-q35
"CLINICAL FEATURES... ...Parietal foramina are symmetrical, oval defects in the parietal bone ....called this condition 'Catlin marks' ...Lother (1959) described 5 cases in 2 generations.... Many... had circumscribed aplasia of the scalp and the same was true of Lother's family... association with seizures..... The possibility of confusion with aboriginal trephination was pointed out by Powell (1970). .....Clefts of the lip and/or palate were present in cases reported by ..."

(...from OMIM - Onlline Mendelian Inheritance in Man, Johns Hopkins University)

12. Ditto...


Aboriginal trephination: case from southern New England? Powell BW.

PMID: 5479628 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Cranial dysraphism mistaken for trephination. Stewart TD.
"Attention is called to a disputed diagnosis of trephination reported for a perforated skull of a prehistoric New England Indian. The perforation, surrounded by a saucer-like depression, is located exactly in the midline just in front of bregma. The finding of a similar lesion in a prehistoric Indian skull from the North Coast of Peru--where, as in New England, good evidence of the practice of trephination is lacking--provides support for a more reasonable diagnosis for both cases: congenital cranial dysraphism, specifically encephalocele. Information about dysraphic states from modern clinical experience is summarized."

PMID: 1096640 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

(...all as indexed in PubMed, National Library for Medicines, and National Institutes for Health)

(Further clarification re Item 12 above: the late, esteemed T.D. Stewart, was a party-at-interest to my submitted article, having personally examined the subject specimen separately earlier at my request; he was then (unwittingly?) chosen by the Editors as one of the three supposedly "unknown" later peer reviewers - but did not disqualify himself, as one supposes he might have. I "detected" his fine hand in the "anonymous" review comments accompanying the initial turn-down of my paper (I had approval of two out of three referees - but you needed unanimity) - and objected; the Editor of Science agreed with me - and reversed their decision and accepted my article. No synopsis of my article can be brought up under its entry (here above) as can be for Stewart's article (immediately below), because it was mis-linked thereafter by the Pub-Med archivers to some other "B.W. Powell" working in an unrelated discipline... an error that persists to this day. Sigh.)


13. Indian Papers of New England...Yale University.

Most of my Connecticut studies have now been been listed in the new Yale compendium and source for same on New England archaeology and Indians. See: http://www.library.yale.edu/yipp/academic_resources/index.html

14. (In) The Viking Settlement of North America. F. J. Pohl, Author. 1972.

Page 107 (?): Ref. to my onetime search for Norse 'mooring holes' in Long Island Sound.

14. (In) Rockshelters of Southwestern Connecticut: their prehistoric occupation and use. Ernest A. Wiegand, Author. 1983. Norwalk Community College Press.

My previously published rockshelter studies make up about 30% of the cited sources in this author's thesis submission. Which see.