USA (Country) (Geographic Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Barbara Roth.

Throughout much of the Southwestern U.S., ash was an important component of ritual deposition and has ethnographically been closely associated with processes of cleansing and renewal. The presence of ash in ritual contexts is well documented, but it also appears to have played an important role in the closing of domestic structures. In this paper, I present cases of ritual closure of domestic structures and examine the role that ash played in these closures using data from pithouse sites in the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Cheryl Claassen.

Following the analysis of Newt Kash Kentucky shelter and other ash and sandal shrines in the eastern US as menstrual retreats, the author examines a number of caves and shelters around the Great Basin paying particular attention to their ash and sandal content. Both items may constitute fertility petitions left at retreat and medicine shelters such as Cowboy Cave, Hogup Cave, and High Rolls. The ash may represent the burning of fertility offerings, including menstrual pads and diapers.

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marvin Kay.

Sediment of varied textures and colors, ash among them, is highlighted from deliberately burnt Harlan-style charnel houses. These were erected in sub-mound pits. In one rendition that followed an earlier house burning, light gray ash alternates in the superior, or upward, position with the black charcoal layer of a collapsed burnt thatch and cane roof. The ash was levelled as a platform. This completed a mortuary cycle linked lineally to subsequent pyramidal mound construction. In other cases...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Judy Berryman. William H. Walker.

Magic and witchcraft, like many classic topics in the anthropology of religion, involve everyday things such as dogs, plant pollen, ashes, and arrow points. As such the archaeological record offers a rich source of ancient religious practices if we can link formation of its deposits to past ritual activities. For example, strata exhibiting ash and projectile points deposited on floors and in the fill of abandoned houses may derive from protective magic. Rather than haphazardly tossed hearth...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Kautz.

This paper explores how a detailed analysis of Asian export porcelain at the New York City Archaeological Repository may enrich our understanding of the city's archaeology.  For example, dates based on stylistic and technical characteristics of Asian export porcelain may refine the dating of archaeological contexts based on other lines of evidence.  New York City's development as a global entrepot may also be further elucidated by identifying and comparing the points of origin and maritime...

DOCUMENT Full-Text John Ruskamp.

This book introduces previously unrecognized ancient written evidence that in pre-Columbian times multiple intellectual exchanges took place between Asiatic and North American populations. Using the novel integration of the legal concept of substantial similarity with the comparative statistical tool of Jaccard's Index of Similarity the Chinese origin of 107+ North American petroglyphs and pictographs is established. Here is the long sought sinographic proof that Asiatic explorers not only...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Teresa Moyer.

Archaeology took place at Mount Clare, a former plantation the remnants of which sit in Carroll Park in southwestern Baltimore, beginning in the 1970s. It not only shaped the story told at the site, but influenced many archaeologists' careers. In 2014, Baltimore City reclaimed the archaeological collection. This historic moment provides archaeologists with an opportunity to reflect on their time with the Mount Clare sites and collections. It is also a moment to propose new ways of using the old...

PROJECT US Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg District. US Army Corps of Engineers Mandatory Center of Expertise for the Curation and Management of Archaeological Collections, St. Louis District.

The procedures employed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), St. Louis District, Curation and Archives Analysis Branch, Mandatory Center of Expertise for the Curation and Management of Archaeological Collections to rehouse the archaeological material from USACE, Vicksburg District are discussed below. In the rehousing process of each investigative effort for the Vicksburg District collection, staff generally followed the same standard procedures. Upon completion of the curation...

DOCUMENT Citation Only LisaMarie Malischke.

Part of the future of Historical Archaeology is the re-examination of existing collections by applying new research questions. An example of this is Fort St. Pierre (1719-1729), where a productive fourth year of excavations in the 1970s went unpublished. In re-examining the whole artifact assemblage with its associated architectural features, I gathered new information regarding daily life at the fort. Using an ethnohistorical approach I constructed the political situation that surrounded the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Keith Stephenson.

Complicated stamped pottery vessels, and the carved wooden paddles used to stamp them, were produced in Southeastern North America beginning early in the first millennium AD and continued in some quarters well into the 19th century. Much of the research on paddle designs has focused on the highly decorative and diverse Woodland Period expressions, with little attention given to later, more repetitive paddle stamps. In this paper, I bring the methods of analysis used to study Woodland paddle...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew C. Reilly. Caree A. Banton. Craig Stevens.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Reckoning with Violence" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Global awareness of Liberia’s recent past is largely limited to the long-term bloodshed that erupted with a 1980 coup and the ensuing civil conflict. What remains understudied is how recent episodes of violence are tethered to the decades following Liberia’s founding as a settler colony of the American Colonization Society in 1822. Our new...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jerimy Cunningham.

This is an abstract from the "25 Years in the Casas Grandes Region: Celebrating Mexico–U.S. Collaboration in the Gran Chichimeca" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists working in the Casas Grandes region generally acknowledge that sites such as Paquimé reflect a social system defined by systemic inequality. Yet, to date little work has been done to document exactly what "inequality" likely meant for people living in the region during the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nathan Shelley.

This is an abstract from the "How to Conduct Museum Research and Recent Research Findings in Museum Collections: Posters in Honor of Terry Childs" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This project assesses the research utility of curated sediment samples excavated at Mesa Portales, New Mexico. These archaeological deposits date to the Pueblo III period (1150-1300 AD) and contain evidence suggesting two traditionally estranged cultures, Gallina and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jesse Tune.

Various methods have been developed to assess the use-life of Paleoindian bifaces by focusing on morphological attributes. Comparative studies have often proven difficult in part because of the diverse nature of Paleoindian biface technologies in North America. While morphological ratios such as length-to-width vary considerably throughout biface use-lives, technological ratios related to fluting and lateral grinding typically remain more constant. In turn, technological variables may be more...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christina Friberg. Elizabeth Watts Malouchos. Edward Herrmann.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Angel Mounds (12VG1) is a fortified Mississippian multi-mound center on the Ohio River in Vanderburgh County, Indiana. With 11 mounds, hundreds of residential structures, a prepared plaza, and massive daubed palisade wall, previous researchers have suggested Angel is at the top of a complex regional settlement hierarchy in the Ohio Valley. However, to-date,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Edward Herrmann. Mackenzie Cory.

This is an abstract from the "Geoarchaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The recent completion of the Indiana State Historic Preservation Office’s SHAARD database provides researchers with a comprehensive site archive that includes site locations, projectile point typologies, raw material types, and a marginal record of site details. We use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to analyze the distribution of over six hundred Early, Middle, and...

PROJECT Jayne Aaron.

This project created guidance on the use of Criterion B eligibility under the NRHP including methods for identification of properties that may be listed under Criterion B, and guidelines to assess a property's significance under Criterion B through a written history. A case study from Marine Corps Base Quantico, management recommendations, and five principles to guide mitigation measures for adverse effects to properties eligible under Criterion B are included.

DOCUMENT Full-Text Jayne Aaron. Karstin Carmany-George.

This document offers guidance on the use of Criterion B eligibility under the NRHP including methods for identification of properties that may be listed under Criterion B, and guidelines to assess a property's significance under Criterion B through a written history. A case study from Marine Corps Base Quantico, management recommendations, and five principles to guide mitigation measures for adverse effects to properties eligible under Criterion B are included.

DOCUMENT Citation Only Charles Koenig. Stephen Black. Charles Frederick.

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. Earth oven baking begins in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwest Texas around 10,000 years ago and becomes a prominent component of hunter-gatherer life throughout the Holocene. We know plant baking played an important role within Lower Pecos lifeways because earth oven...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew E Keith. Amanda M Evans.

Shipwreck sites are subject to large scale oceanographic and environmental processes which can impact interpretation of the site as well as the stability of the wreck itself.  Along the Outer Continental Shelf of the northern Gulf of Mexico, alluvial deposits comprised of varying quantities of clays, silts, and sands dominate the seafloor.  The movement of these deposits through both ongoing processes (such as currents and waves) and punctuated events (such as hurricanes) significantly impact...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jacqueline Fox. William Bryce. Andrea Gregory. Travis Cureton.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Logan Simpson recently mitigated multiple prehistoric sites along the Middle Gila River in Arizona for the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Florence Flood Retarding Structure Rehabilitation project. One site, AZ U:15:836(ASM), is a small Hohokam farmstead within the Grewe-Casa Grande canal system. Recent investigations at the site identified evidence...

DOCUMENT Full-Text William A. Martin. James E. Bruseth. Robert J. Huggins.

Magnetic surveys and electromagnetic conductivity surveys were conducted at several sites during the course of field work at the Richland/Chambers Reservoir in north-central Texas between 1982 and 1985. Much of this work was conducted at the Bird Point Island site (41FT201J, which was used as a proving ground to test the effectiveness of various remote-sensing techniques. Two devices, a Geometrics proton precession magnetometer and a Geonics Limited EM-38 electromagnetic conductivity sensor were...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stacey L Camp.

This is an abstract from the "Health and Inequality in the Archaeological Record" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Archaeologists frequently recover artifacts that speak to the health and welfare of individuals or a community they are studying. Archaeologists can use these medicinal- and healthcare-related artifacts to assess an individual or community’s quality of life. This is particularly important to investigate in the context of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeremy Pye.

Malaria is thought to have been brought to the Americas by early Spanish explorers. By the late 19th century, malaria had spread through human populations throughout tropical and temperate areas of the Americas, including the American Southwest. Historical documents, maps, and modern GIS data layers (e.g., DEM, soils, vegetation, land use, streams) from the area around Tucson, Arizona, were consulted and entered into ArcGIS (v.10) in order to produce a map of potential vector breeding locations...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ashley Huntley.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the past few decades urban centers, especially in the Midwestern United States, have experienced "revitalizations" that have completely altered the socio-political and ethnic make-ups of these cities. While historic preservation does not always play a role in the gentrification of cities—especially in urban locations were the emphasis has been placed on...