Republic of Nicaragua (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
1,151-1,175 (1,860 Records)
MaDu Gaspar and Paulo DeBlasis Sambaquis (shellmounds) have attracted attention since colonial times due to their monumentality, and to the presence of human burials and stone sculptures. Discussions on their natural or human origin dominated up to the 1960s, when debate shifted to cultural history and diet, and moundbuilders were taken as nomadic bands with shellfish-based subsistence. The 1990s, a time of changing paradigms in sambaqui archaeology, coincides with the coming of Suzy and Paul...
New Approaches to Study Health and Disease in the Pre-Colonial circum-Caribbean (2017)
The most frequent pathologies found throughout the circum-Caribbean before arrival of the Europeans are dental and periodontal diseases. To date, ancient oral health has been studied using a variety of techniques, and recently ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis of dental calculus (calcified plaque) has shown great promise in revealing not only (oral) health and disease, but also diet and the composition of the oral microbiome over archaeological timescales. In this paper, we present ancient metagenomic...
New Evidence for Ceramic Systems in Precolumbian Bocas del Toro, Panama (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For several thousand years before the arrival of Spanish explorers in 1502, Bocas del Toro, Panama, was home to numerous vibrant cultures. However, this area has seen only sporadic archaeological study over the past century. While surveys and excavations have revealed several multi-period settlements, with complex, multiphase ceramic assemblages, Bocas del...
New Evidence of the Earliest Domestic Dogs in the Americas (2018)
While the arrival of domesticated dogs with an initial human migration has been the most reasonable explanation for their presence in the Americas, evidence for Paleoindian dogs has proven elusive. Here, we present the identification and direct radiocarbon dating of an isolated dog burial from Stilwell II, an Early Archaic site in the Lower Illinois River Valley. We also present new direct radiocarbon dates for two dogs from the nearby Archaic Koster site. These dates confirm that the Stilwell...
New Evidence of the Northern Manteño Frontier, The Land of the Pasaos Before the Spanish Encounter (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Early chronicles indicate that the Manteño groups organized themselves along the coast into complex trading chiefdoms: these regional polities, controlled ports, and navigation equipment such as balsa rafts. In addition, maize agriculture combined with seafood products conformed their subsistence economy. Echoing early chronicles, some scholars indicate...
A New Fee Structure to Ensure Repository and Archive Sustainability (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Navigating Ethical and Legal Quandaries in Modern Archaeological Curation" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For many decades, the Arizona State Museum (ASM) used a flat-rate curation model that proved unsustainable. It did not cover the costs of reviewing incoming materials for compliance with the Arizona Antiquities Act (AAA), preparing submissions for curation, or care in perpetuity. Furthermore, inadequate funding...
New information on marine hunter-gatherers of the Southernmost End of South America: technological and zooarchaeological study of site Bahía Mejillones 45, Chile. (2017)
In this poster we present the results of research at Bahía Mejillones 45, located at the northern coast of Navarino island, at 55º parallel south, Chile. We describe and illustrate the results of an extended archaeological excavation, including stratigraphic and radiocarbon information (6850 Cal BP) concerning the Middle Holocene assemblage. Bone technological elements are characteristic of early marine hunter-gatherer groups of the region, considering multi-denticulate harpoons, detachable...
New Insights into Honduran Archaeology from the Recovery and Reanalysis of an Antique Lidar Dataset (2018)
In response to the widespread destruction caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, the US Geological Survey conducted an extensive survey of 15 modern cities in Honduras. This 2000 survey was carried out by the Bureau of Economic Geology of the University of Texas, and the resultant data were used to generate flood risk maps. The survey also produced the first lidar data collection of a Maya site; however, in the early 2000s, lidar algorithms were not capable of performing the same tasks as today. The...
New Insights into the Consumption of Cultigens for "Archaic" Age Populations in Cuba: The Archaeological Site of Playa el Mango, Rio Cauto, Granma (2018)
The use of cultigens and wild plants by pre-historic populations has been well established for many regions of the circum-Caribbean and Greater Antilles. However, in the case of Cuba, the largest island in the Caribbean, the evidence is scarce. In this paper, we examine the population of Playa El Mango (Cauto Region, Eastern Cuba), traditionally understood by Cuban archaeologists as "fisher-gatherers", to examine subsistence practices using a combination of starch evidence from dental calculus,...
New Investigations on the Northeast Coast of Honduras (2017)
As part of the Central American Isthmus, Honduras adopted a special role in prehispanic America. Together with Nicaragua, the territory of modern Honduras functioned as a bridge between the culture areas of Mesoamerica and the Intermediate Area. In spite of that unique situation, archaeological investigations in Honduras have been focusing on the western, Mesoamerican part, especially on the Maya city of Copan. In contrast, cultural developments in the east remain largely unknown. With the goal...
New Methods for Training Historic/Prehistoric Human Remains Detection Dogs (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Canine Resources for the Archaeologist" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Human remains detection dogs have been used with success to detect both historic and prehistoric human remains in various projects in the United States and Europe. However, success has often been marginal, as it is with “search and rescue” cadaver dogs. Three dogs have been trained at the forensic anthropology center at Texas State University on...
New Perspectives in the Geoarcheological Context of Hunter-Gatherer Sites from the Beginning of the Holocene, Serranópolis, Brazil (2018)
The GO-JA-01 and GO-JA-02 archaeological sites, located in sand stone shelters of Serranopolis excavated from the 1970s to 1990s and earliest at 10.400 years B. P., were occupied by hunter-gatherer and agricultural-ceramist groups. Recent studies have raised hypotheses regarding the appropriation and construction of the landscape by hunter-gatherer groups, based on evidences related to the paleoenvironment and the archeological site formation process in the Rio Verde river alluvial plain. The...
New Perspectives on Cultural Heritage Protection Informed by Public Opinion Surveys (2019)
This is an abstract from the "New Perspectives on Heritage Protection: Accomplishing Goals" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite past cultural resource protection efforts, looting remains a prevalent issue throughout the U.S. While the laws may be adequate, current methods of and emphasis on detection and enforcement of these crimes are not. This paper discusses new perspectives on cultural heritage protection based primarily on the results of...
New Phylogenetic Information from Ancient DNA for Central Panamá (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. New interpretations of Precolumbian Panamanian archaeological sequences and regions are provided. Results from ancient DNA (aDNA) analyses of remains from the site of Panamá Viejo, Panamá, are compared with a multiple burial found in the vicinity of La Pintada in Coclé, Panamá. The Panamá Viejo materials are classified as haplogroup A2 and include...
The New Pragmatism: Archaeological Encounters and Entanglements (2018)
In 2010, Steve Mrozowski and I proposed a "new pragmatism" as a way for archaeology to cut the Gordion knot of endless theory debates. We argued that this movement or spirit does not refer to the dominance of any one approach or theory, but rather to the more explicit integration of archeology and its social contact in ways that serve contemporary human needs. In my contribution, I example the relevance of some of the insights of Richard Rorty and Jurgen Habermas in developing a pragmatic...
New Survey Results from the Bolas Region, Costa Rica (2018)
The Bolas region presents one of the earliest steps toward the monumentality and complex social patterns that characterize later World Heritage sites in Greater Chiriquí. The forces and factors associated with these social changes remain incompletely understood. This paper shares the results from recent shovel test survey in the Bolas region and offers observations on broad social trends from the Formative period onward. Particular attention is paid to Mosca, another large and monumental site in...
The Ngake 001 Site: Surface Mapping and Subsurface Investigations (2018)
The Ngake 001 site is located on Manihiki Atoll in the northern Cook Islands. In all, the site covers an area of roughly two hectars and consists of four coral-edged courts, two small coral-edged enclosures, a possible well, part of a lagoon shore path, and a mound and trench system that provides access to the islet’s Ghyben-Herzberg freshwater lens. Multiple surveys, by the authors and others, suggest that the Ngake 001 site is situated at the center of a large prehistoric village complex that...
Nieve Nieve, a local rural community under Spanish rule (2017)
The archeological site of Nieve Nieve is located in the middle Lurin Valley, Central Coast of Peru. The spatial configuration of this site differs drastically from other late prehispanic settlements in the valley. The presence of a colonial church as well as a series of architectonic compounds built along parallel and perpendicular streets not only indicate a well planned construction but also the introduction of a new, and probably foreign, urban design. Yet, other aspects such as the...
No Man Is an Island: Death and Burial on the Island of Haffjarðarey (2018)
During the 13th century Iceland became a major hub of the North Atlantic fishing industry sparking international conflict over fishing rights between mercantile interests from Norway, Denmark, England, the Netherlands and Northern Germany. From ca. 1200 - 1563 the Catholic Church and cemetery on the island of Haffjarðarey served as the burial place for the large geographic region of Eyjahreppur in western Iceland. The church and cemetery were closed during the Lutheran Reformation and the...
Normalizing Culturally Informed Collections Stewardship (2024)
This is an abstract from the "In Search of Solutions: Exploring Pathways to Repatriation for NAGPRA Practitioners (Part III)" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Culturally informed stewardship takes a holistic and culturally inclusive approach to the preservation, access, and use of cultural items, records, and images. It acknowledges that curation and care are political acts and that the stewards of cultural collections must do more than simply...
Norse Exploitation of Wooden Resources in North America: Determining Wood Provenance Using Isotopic Analysis (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SANNA v2.2: Case Studies in the Social Archaeology of the North and North Atlantic" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. From historic sources we know the inhabitants of the North Atlantic islands relied on importations of timber from Northern Europe in order to supplement their resource deficit. In the case of the Greenland Settlements, we know Norse Greenlanders organized expeditions to North American shores where they...
Norse Textiles at the Western Edge of the North Atlantic. (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Celebrating Anna Kerttula's Contributions to Northern Research" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Anna Kertulla’s vision of Arctic research incorporated a desire to see female scholars succeed and work on issues pertaining to women’s lives in the North. Three NSF-funded grants from Arctic Social Sciences, focusing on textiles as women’s production, used over 1500 textiles from Iceland, Greenland, the Faroes, and Scotland...
North/South Archaic mobility in Dry Puna. Hunter- Gatherers from upper Azapa valley bassin, northern Chile. (2017)
The different models of hunter-gatherer mobility in South Central Andean area, despite its theoretical and conceptual factors, normally emphasize for the Archaic Period the complementarity between vegetation belt for various biotic resources, depending on availability, location and seasonality. Here we complement such models at a meso-scale level, based upon results from surveys and excavations in upper Azapa valley bassin, a region located at the foothills of the Northern Chile Cordillera. Our...
Northern Gulf Coast Trade in the Mesoamerican Postclassic: The Evidence from Brownsville (2018)
The Postclassic period (ca. 1000-1520 CE) in the coastal Gulf of Mexico was characterized by an increase in trade and interaction between groups moving along the coastline and larger inland polities such as the Aztec empire. While exchange between Mesoamerican groups is increasingly well documented, the extent of interaction between people in Mesoamerica and those living further northward is poorly understood. Evidence of the nature and strength of cultural ties between the Huasteca of the Gulf...
Not Quite One and the Same: Repetition and Rule in the Inka Provinces (2017)
The use of molds for pottery manufacture is an integral part of the ceramic tradition of the North Coast of Peru, dating to at least as early as AD 100. Analysis of mold-made Chimu-Inka monkey effigy vessels excavated from mortuary contexts at the sites of Farfan and Tucume suggest that Late Horizon fineware production occurred in local workshops rather than in a centralized facility—a pattern consistent with other studies of Inka pottery production from around the Central Andes. The use and...