Aruba (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
301-325 (2,185 Records)
Households are the most important social unit in every society. The production and consumption of resources within the household can provide information on how resources were obtained, stored and distributed within the Household or the community. Recent archaeological research had provided significant information about the Casma polity, which occupied the northern coast of Peru between 700-1400 A.D. The Casma society is viewed as a centralized polity that controlled several coastal valleys....
Casma Occupation at Pan de Azúcar de Nepeña: Findings from the 2017 and 2018 PIAPAN Field Seasons (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Casma State Material Culture and Society: Organizing, Analyzing, and Interpreting Archaeological Evidence of a Re-emergent Ancient Polity" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1968 and 1973, Donald Proulx conducted surface surveys of the Nepeña Valley, registering sites spanning different time periods and cultural occupations. One of these sites, registered as PV31-29, is Pan de Azúcar de Nepeña, a Casma site consisting...
Casma Pottery Production at El Campanario Site, Huarmey Valley, Peru (2017)
Pottery production was an important aspect of the social and economic life within Andean societies. In pre-industrial societies craft production occurred at the household level and depending upon the social complexity, this production was either independent or sponsored by the elite. Recent archaeological excavation of domestic contexts at the El Campanario site revealed that the area was occupied by the Casma polity during the Middle Horizon (600-1000 AD). This coastal polity occupied the...
Castellated Rims and Silica Bodies: Rethinking Valdivia (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Innovations in Ecuadorian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Initial attempts to explain the origins of pottery on the coast of Ecuador and in the rest of the Americas focused on transpacific contact. During the last few decades this debate has quieted as the Vegas and Valdivia phases of southwest Ecuador became better known. Nevertheless, there has remained a chronological hiatus between the two...
Castillo Decorated Ceramics as Boundaries Objects: A Reappraisal of the Tradición Norcosteña from Ceramic Technology (North Coast of Peru, Early Intermediate Period) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Andean and Amazonian Ceramics: Advances in Technological Studies" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. On the northern coast of Peru and throughout the Early Intermediate period, the frequent findings of Castillo Decorated effigy vessels in Virú (200 BC–AD 600/700) and Moche (AD 100–800) contexts have led several archaeologists to consider them as a northern coastal tradition. In this sense, these ceramics would have been...
Causes and Consequences of Colonization in the Caribbean: What Is Known and What Is Unknowable (2017)
One of the defining characteristics of humans is our propensity to migrate. However, the push or pull factors resulting in human migrations may be impossible to know in some cases. Furthermore, our sole reliance on the archaeological record may mislead our understanding of the timing and impact of migrations. Recognizing migrations in the archaeological past is made especially difficult in cases where migrating groups were small, leaving ephemeral traces of their occupations. Paleoenvironmental...
The CCitRes Initiative: Using Citizen Science and Public Archaeology to Build Heritage Management Capacity in Curaçao (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Caribbean islands face significant heritage management capacity shortfalls that undermine local direction and control of archaeological research for community benefit. The Curaçao Citizen Researcher (CCitRes) Initiative uses citizen science and public archaeology to develop archaeological capacity on one such island, Curaçao, and empower communities to...
CCompositional Analysis of Low-Fired Coarse Earthenware Excavated Archaeologically from Two Anguillan Eighteenth- to Nineteenth-Century Plantation Sites (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the preliminary results of neutron activation analysis (NAA) and laser ablation ICP-MS (LA-ICP-MS) conducted at the University of Missouri Research Reactor’s Archaeometry Lab on coarse earthenware sherds recovered archaeologically from two plantation-era sites on Anguilla, the Wallblake Estate site and the Hughes Estate site. Using...
Cell Towers: Where the Archaeology Is a Mile Wide and an Inch Deep (2018)
Cultural Resource Management investigations associated with the deployment of telecommunications infrastructure in the United States are unique. From the size of the undertaking, to the task that CRM/NEPA professionals are prescribed to accomplish, cultural resource professionals are able to see a wide breadth of cultural landscapes from across the country for short periods of time. Using examples from across the country, a critical examination will be made of this unique aspect of CRM. How has...
The Central American Ceramics Research Project: A Case Study on How to Make Old Museum Collections Relevant Again (2018)
The Central American Ceramics Research Project, a student driven and collaborative research program carried out between 2009-2013, completed a scholarly survey of more than 13,000 ceramic objects in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). The project originated as an effort to update old catalog information and bring to light important but largely forgotten collections of ceramics. However, it quickly developed into a major collaborative research effort that brought...
Central Andes Kotosh Religious Tradition, Third Millennium BCE: Hearth Designs as Andean Portals between Worlds (2017)
On top of Caral Peru’s amphitheater mound, an entry passageway opens to an inner sanctum—tiered benches surrounding a sunken floor and a central ceremonial hearth. This concentric design recessed into the earth repeats in diverse ways throughout third millennium BCE Kotosh Religious Tradition temples in the central Andes. Whence the concentric sunken design and hearth? I propose the hearth functioned as Andean portals for communication with unseen worlds, giving offerings, remembering ancestors....
Central Texas Plant Baking (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Hot Rocks in Hot Places: Investigating the 10,000-Year Record of Plant Baking across the US-Mexico Borderlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Burned rock middens, large accumulations of thermally fractured stone and charred earth representing earth oven facilities, are ubiquitous in the hunter-gatherer archaeological record of Central Texas, upon and near the Edwards Plateau. The subject of study for over a century,...
Ceramic Differences at the Household/Neighborhood Level at Cerro Mejía: Evidence of a Possible Multiethnic "Mitmaqkuna" Community on the Southern Frontier of the Wari Empire (2017)
This poster will present the results of the analysis of household ceramic assemblages from the slopes of the secondary Wari center Cerro Mejía in the Moquegua Valley. The slopes of Cerro Mejía are divided into distinct domestic neighborhoods by fieldstone walls. Based on differences between these neighborhoods observed during excavations it has been hypothesized that this site was a multiethnic community similar to Inca mitmaqkuna with local inhabitants from throughout the region and possibly...
A Ceramic Investigation into the Relationship between Emergent Complexity and Religion on the South Coast of Peru (2017)
This paper investigates negotiations of power on the south coast of Peru through ceramic attribute analysis. The ceramic sample comes from the site of Cerro Tortolita, which contains both ceremonial and habitation zones. This site’s emergence in the upper Ica Valley during the 3rd century AD coincided with a broader increase in local settlement hierarchy. The timing of Cerro Tortolita’s rise and its religious nature provide a unique opportunity to isolate and investigate the relationship between...
Ceramic Manufacturing and Distribution Networks in Early Jamaica: Interpretive Implications of LA-ICP-MS and NAA Analyses on Coarse Earthenwares from 18th-Century Plantation Contexts (2018)
Archaeologists have long been intrigued by hand‐built, open‐fired coarse earthenwares found on 18th‐ and 19th‐century sites occupied by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and United States. In Jamaica, these hand‐built coarse earthenwares, often referred to as Yabbas, were likely manufactured and marketed by enslaved specialists. Several different varieties of glazed and/or kiln‐fired coarse earthenwares, not easily assigned to a known ware-type, are also routinely found in plantation contexts....
Ceramic production for Castillo de Huarmey, Peru: multiple productions and buzzing potters (2017)
The paste analysis of the ceramics found in the Castillo de Huarmey, a Middle Horizon Wari political center on the north coast of Peru brought forth the existence of a variety of production areas and a panorama of multiple producers with different agendas or practices. Much of the ceramics appear to have been made with material available in the Huarmey lower valley, coastal area, and probably the adjacent Culebras Valley. The fine painted Wari ceramics and fine reduced impressed wares present a...
Ceramic variability and social interaction in the Middle Orinoco: On multi ethnic communities and ceramic traditions in the Late occupation period (500-1500 AD) (2017)
The Átures Rapids in the Middle Orinoco region are mentioned in the historical sources as a key trading center linking the Western Llanos of the Orinoco and the Guyana, where people, goods and ideas were exchanged. A recent study in Picure Island, located in the rapids, present a variety of ceramic temper wares, beads and quartz crystals associated in stratigraphically excavated contexts. The ceramic sherds recovered in Picure are closely related to other archaeological sites in the Middle...
Ceramics Crossing Temporal and Cultural Boundaries in the Moquegua Valley (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ceramic vessels have been produced and in use for thousands of years. Ceramicists are tasked with the duty of creating unique wares and transmitting production knowledge through formal or informal apprentice relationships. In this poster, we compare the vessel forms and functions from the Middle Horizon sites of Cerro Mejia and Cerro Baul to the Late...
Ceramics from Zorropata, a Middle Horizon Las Trancas Habitation Site in Nasca, Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Early in the Middle Horizon (c. AD 650-1000), the Wari Empire expanded from its Ayacucho homeland and established at least three colonies in the SNR: Pacheco, Pataraya, and Inkawasi in the northern valley of the Southern Nasca Region. Pacheco, located in the Nasca Valley, was a probable Wari administrative/ceremonial center. Additional Wari-affiliated...
Ceramics Inside and Out: Food, Style, and Identity in Coastal Northeastern Honduras during the Selin Period (AD 300–1000) (2018)
Prehispanic populations of northeastern Honduras were positioned at the border of Mesoamerica and Lower Central America. Previous research on ceramic style suggests local affiliation shifted over time from north to south as part of an adept strategy to navigate the complex political and social landscape of the region through the promotion of an inclusive group identity. This study explores the actual implementation of that strategy by investigating communal feasting contexts where symbolically...
Ceremonial and Psychotropic Plants of the Tiwanaku (AD 500-1000): New Evidence for Erythroxylum Coca and Anadenanthera Colubrina from the Omo Temple in Moquegua, Peru. (2017)
The consumption of psychotropic substances is a ceremonial practice widespread worldwide since antiquity, however, archaeological evidence for the role of plants in rituals is scarce and interpretations are mostly derived from ethnographies and iconography. Among other methods of analysis, Paleoethnobotany is one of the most indicated for the finding of micro and macro remains involved in ceremonies. This paper presents the results of a Paleoethnobotanical analysis conducted at the site of Omo...
Ceremonial Waterscapes: The Desaguadero River Valley in Antiquity (2018)
The Lake Titicaca Basin in the Bolivian Andes was a dynamic place that saw the development of early religious centers like Chiripa and Khonkho Wankane, the subsequent emergence and expansion of the Tiwanaku state, and the incursion of the Inca empire. The Desaguadero River is the only river that drains Lake Titicaca, flowing south and connecting the region to the central altiplano and Lake Poopó some 250 kilometers downriver. This paper examines the ceremonial and political importance of the...
Cerro Cumbray: A Chimu Frontier Outpost (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cerro Cumbray is a Chimu hilltop settlement located near the modern town of Simbal, Peru. During the 2018 field season, the authors used aerial photography via drone to create a site map and conducted a limited pedestrian survey in order to better understand site chronology and context. While Cerro Cumbray lacks indications of large-scale fortification; the...
Cerro de Oro and the Year A.D. 600: Changing Settlement Patterns in the Lower Cañete Valley (2017)
The year AD. 600 seems to be an important turning point in the settlement pattern of the lower Cañete valley. While settlements prior to this date tend to be small sized and located close to the river margin, the period after AD 600 shows settlements tend to be placed a few kilometers away from the river margin. The largest of these is Cerro de Oro, a 150ha densely populated settlement located on top of a mound, 13km away from the river margin. The construction and use of Cerro de Oro seems to...
Cerro Mejía: A Wari Community Divided? (2018)
The Wari-affiliated community on Cerro Mejía is divided by large walls that cut the slopes into vertical strips. These segments of the site may represent divisions of the settlement that the occupants recognized, agreed with, and maintained or these groupings may have been imposed by Wari officials. In this paper, I describe the features of Cerro Mejía and consider this important question. In light of overt differences between houses with regards to form and construction techniques I suggest...