Republic of Panama (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
2,876-2,900 (3,080 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Beyond Borders at the End of a Millennium: Life in the Western Andes circa 500–50 BCE" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite the archaeological significance of the Cusco region, research on societies that preceded the Inka in their heartland have lagged behind other areas. In particular the Late Formative (600 BCE–CE 200) presents a time of increasing social complexity, increased participation in interregional trade...
Unravelling the Social Determinants of Lead Exposure in 19th Century British Royal Navy Stationed in Antigua, W.I. (2018)
An exploration into various aspects of lead exposure in the British Royal Navy stationed in 19th Century Antigua, West Indies has contributed to some unexpected insights. This research was facilitated by study of human remains mitigated from a Naval Hospital cemetery in response to modern development. The interred at the site were lower ranking naval personnel including enslaved individuals. Other work on lead exposure in the region focused on enslaved plantation laborers revealed high levels of...
Unrecognized Complexity: Defining the Significance of Huaca Letrada and the Northern Gallinazo (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the last 30 years, perspectives on the Gallinazo and Virú have changed significantly. Results of 2022 intensive surface survey and accompanying drone-based mapping of sites on the south bank of the mid-La Leche Valley show that reassessment must continue. Comparable to the monumental crafting center of Cerro Songoy-Cojal in the mid-Zaña Valley to the...
Unresolved Questions in the Study of *Mopa Mopa: History, Geography, and Chemistry (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Plant Exudates and Other Binders, Adhesives, and Coatings in the Americas" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. *Mopa mopa is the collective name given to the resin from species of the plant genus *Elaeagia (family Rubiaceae) that grows in regions of Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. The resin has been used from prehispanic times to the present day to decorate a range of objects from colonial Inka *qeros to highly decorated and...
Unsettling Settler-Colonial Archaeology: Constructing Indigenous Futurities at Puʻukoholā Heiau (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Often thought of as a discipline that concerns itself with ruins—that which is in the past—archaeology also serves the settler-colonial project, in the present and the future. For that reason, archaeology inherently functions as a political tool, even if typically imagined as an apolitical means of “preserving” the past. In other words, archaeology offers...
Unsettling the Classroom: Teaching Archaeology’s Ties with Settler-Colonialism (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Pedagogy in the Undergraduate Archaeology Classroom" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For well over a decade, archaeologists such as Pyburn (2005) and Arnold (2005) have highlighted the need for teaching to engage with the larger, core issues that shape our research. Nevertheless, high-profile archaeological conversations about decolonization have tended to focus exclusively on research theory and practice. Yet Atalay...
Untangling Wari Colonization, Trade, and Administration in Coastal Arequipa from the Site of Quilcapampa, Siguas Valley. (2017)
The seventh century AD marked a period of great social change in the coastal valleys of Arequipa, Perú. During this time, an increase in violence, population growth, and social complexity was met with foreign influences from the Wari state of the central highlands. While scholars have long asserted that Arequipa fell under Wari control at this time, the evidence for direct state control has never been demonstrated conclusively in the region. This presentation reports the results of our...
Upano, an Anthropized Valley in the Upper Amazon (2018)
Sangay, Ecuador, is probably the most prestigious and impressive site in Amazonia. It is indeed an immense establishment regrouping dozens complexes of artificial earthmounds and a network of endless paths dug along the edge of a terrace of the left bank the Upano. Many archaeological sites have been found in this narrow and straight Upano Valley has been modified over tens of kilometers in length by the pre-Columbian, but few of them have been excavated. Does this multitude of interconnected...
The Upper Marañón after Chavín and before the LIP: Glimpse into Poorly Documented Times (2024)
This is an abstract from the "After the Feline Cult: Social Dynamics and Cultural Reinvention after Chavín" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While the Late Intermediate period (LIP) in the upper Marañón region is well known for its unique surface stone architecture such as tall multistoried tombs, the periods immediately following the Early Horizon are still poorly documented and understood. Nonetheless, excavations at the site of Rapayán in Ancash...
Urban Organization and Agricultural Practices at Las Huacas, Chincha Valley (AD 1100-1570) (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In modern times the Chincha Valley is one of the most productive agricultural valleys of Peru, and its offshore islands were rich in guano — bird excrement that is a potent fertilizer — that was exploited by foreigners from the Colonial into the Republican Periods (AD 1523-1879). While the importance of the valley’s agriculture and resources is well known...
Urbanism without Cities in Ancient Amazonia (2024)
This is an abstract from the "States, Confederacies, and Nations: Reenvisioning Early Large-Scale Collectives." session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Middle Horizon was a time of political centralization in the Andes. During the same period one sees in the Amazon clear evidence of population growth, settlement nucleation and landscape transformation, as it is attested by the increase in site size, the production of anthropic soils, construction of...
Urbanization in Ancient Tonga: The Tongatapu Low-Density Urban System (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Theorizing Prehistoric Large Low-Density Settlements beyond Urbanism and Other Conventional Classificatory Conventions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The concept of low-density urbanization has been an important development in recognizing the diversity of past human settlements. However, the key challenge to studying low density urbanization with archaeological data, particularly in tropical zones, has been the...
The Use and Circulation of Seaweeds along the Western Coast of South America (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeophycology: New (Ethno)Archaeological Approaches to Understand the Contribution of Seaweed to the Subsistence and Social Life of Coastal Populations" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The exploitation and consumption of seaweeds is a thriving matter of research, arguably started in the 1980s by the ethnographic work of Shozo Masuda in the Andes. This study goes beyond local discussions or milestones about proxies...
The Use of Balances in Late Andean Prehistory: Merchants or Bureaucrats? (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Political Economies on the Andean Coast" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In prehistory, scales were used by both merchants and bureaucrats and their use had profound impacts on economic and administrative practices. Research in the Andes has not critically addressed the role of balances in political economies, but their presence throughout the Andean coast highlights the need to explore how they were used and by whom....
The Use of Forensic Anthropology Methods in Historic Cases (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. "Historic" is a term commonly used in archaeology and bioarcheology but is not typically associated with forensic anthropology. However, historic cases have been brought to forensic anthropology labs, where biological profiles are built using forensic anthropological methods. These osteological methods used within forensic anthropology can be applied to...
The Use of Primary Sources in Plantation Archaeology: the Case Study of Hacienda La Esperanza. (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Primary Sources and the Design of Research Projects" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Research at Hacienda La Esperanza, a nineteenth century sugar plantation in the municipality of Manatí, Puerto Rico, was conducted to study the material culture of its enslaved population and document their unwritten experiences. The use of primary sources proved indispensable during the early research design stages of the project....
Use-Wear Analysis of the Middle Horizon (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Exploring Culture Contact and Diversity in Southern Peru" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Use-wear analysis is a qualitative method of study that observes abrasion patterns on material remains. Wear traces can come from stirring, lids, storage techniques, and other culinary practices. Apparent wear patterns and abrasion coarseness are features that help infer the use of different vessel forms. I applied this technique...
Using Ancient Plant Macroremains to Understand Resource Consumption in the Past and Present (2017)
Many people recognize the need for markedly different mode of living amid a growing body of scientific evidence that the current world population is environmentally unsustainable. Exploring ancient foodways and landscape management techniques may improve our ability to imagine highly productive modes of food production and resource consumption dissimilar to that of our current global reality. Here, I show how a reconstruction of macrobotanical and faunal remains builds a narrative of...
Using Digitized Archaeological Literature as Big Data: Lessons from Using Open-Source Software to Text Mine Archaeological Site Numbers and Citation Information from JSTOR across the United States and Canada for the Digital Index of North American Archaeology (DINAA) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Digital Index of North American Archaeology (DINAA) now contains citations to professional journal articles which mention specific archaeological sites in tens of thousands of instances across the United States and Canada. DINAA researchers have developed methods to identify Smithsonian Trinomial (USA) and Borden Grid (Canada) archaeological site...
Using Geophysics for Cemetery Delineation on DOD Installations: Practical Advice, Pitfalls, and Project Examples (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Application of Geophysical Techniques to Military Archaeology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cemeteries and burial grounds are a common feature of the historic landscape, and mapping cemeteries is a consistent and pressing land management need for DOD cultural resource managers. When a cemetery is involved, stakeholders may be diverse and the results can be emotionally charged. Land managers and the public may...
Using LiDAR and Environmental Suitability Models to Predict Probable Locations of Ancient Settlements in Manabí, Ecuador (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In recent years, LIDAR has gained popularity among archaeological researchers for its capability to reveal ancient settlement features hidden beneath dense vegetation coverage in heavily forested areas. More often, these studies have revealed undocumented monumental architecture and in some cases modified landscapes such as agricultural terraces, canals, and...
Using Lidar to Locate and Classify Ancient Maya Water Storage Features at Yaxnohcah, Campeche, Mexico (2017)
Airborne lidar presents a valuable tool to investigate water management in a water-scarce region of the Maya lowlands. We analyze 25 sq-km of lidar elevation data for the ancient Maya site of Yaxnohcah in Campeche, Mexico. Using the hydrologic tools in the GIS software ArcMap we identified hundreds of closed depressions (many extremely small). These features may have a natural origin (e.g. a sink hole) or may be anthropogenic (e.g. from quarrying), or may be data artifacts. We used a series of...
Using Multi-Proxy Evidence to Evaluate Captive Animal Management in the Prehistoric Caribbean (2017)
For some time archaeologists have speculated that non-native mammals introduced to the prehistoric Caribbean may have been managed in captivity, but direct evidence for this practice has been wanting. The question of management is complicated by ambiguous and conflicting data from ethnohistory, animal behaviour, and archaeology, as well as potentially unwarranted assumptions about human interaction with synanthropic animals. I examine this issue for introduced agouti (Dasyprocta sp.) and opossum...
Using Multispectral Drone Imagery for Identification of Prehispanic Agricultural Features (2018)
In recent years, the use of multispectral satellite imagery has become an increasingly viable option for archaeological site detection and classification. Nevertheless, the high costs and relatively low resolution of multispectral data present challenges for local-scale archaeological feature detection. In this presentation, we will examine the advantages and limitations of using UAV aerial multispectral imagery as a means of local-scale feature detection. We compare results of remote sensing...
Using Parry Fracture Data to Further Assess Violence in Andahuaylas during the Late Intermediate Period (2018)
Previous studies of crania showing recurrent trauma suggest high rates of violence in the Andahuaylas province of Peru during the Late Intermediate Period. Through an assessment of direct blow fractures to radius and ulna bones (lower arm bones), we further examined violence in the region, anticipating a high rate of parry fractures. The skeletal remains assessed come from Sonhuayo, a fortified habitation sector of Cachi, a Chanka site in the west-central portion of the Andahuaylas province....