Republic of Costa Rica (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
1,151-1,175 (1,875 Records)
Different facets and stages of craft production commonly occur in different spatial loci regardless of differences in medium, technology, intensity and/or scale. Locational differences may be relatively minor with different facets or production stages being practiced concurrently, or masters and apprentices occupying different areas of a given room or workshop. While sheet metal preparation and alloying both require constant heat sources, the former requires a clean area protected from winds and...
Network Analysis in the Tairona Chiefdoms: Settlement Patterns and Social interaction in the El Congo Microbasin, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Applications of Network Analysis" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper seeks to present the results of network analysis for the case of the chiefdom communities that inhabited the northwestern slope of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta from AD 400 to 1600 in the El Congo microbasin. Through the use of statistical algorithms in R language and databases in geographic information systems, this paper...
Networking: digital archaeology repositories in Argentina (2017)
The digitization of primary data in social sciences and humanities, including archeology, has been a central issue in the management of science in Argentina by federal agencies, public universities and private foundations. About this topic, Argentina´s National Research Council (CONICET) created the Interactive Platform for Social Science Research, an interdisciplinary space, that over six years has generated protocols related to digitization and ways to share these results under the concept of...
Networks of the Dead: exploring patterns of homogeneity and diversity in the precolonial Caribbean using network analysis (2017)
The precolonial Caribbean shows great diversity in burial patterns across time and space, making the interpretation of funerary behavior very complex. While some broad trends in funerary practices have been noted, a simple assessment of the frequency of different burial practices in the region reveals a range of body positions and body treatment, as well as burial location, and grave goods. In this paper we use statistical and network explorative approaches to map these variable practices. A...
Neural Nets for Style: A Method for the Examination of Material Culture Variation (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The cause of morphological variation in material culture has long been debated. This investigation into archaic projectile point variation from the Gault site in central Texas looks through the lens of social learning to suggest that different teaching and learning strategies represent the root cause of variation. These strategies may in turn reflect part of...
Neutron Activated Analysis of Afro-Caribbean Ware Excavated Archaeologically from Six Pre-Emancipation Sugar Plantation sites on Anguilla and Sint Maarten (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the preliminary results of neutron activation analysis (NAA) conducted at the University of Missouri Research Reactor’s Archaeometry Lab on coarse earthenware sherds recovered archaeologically from three pre-emancipation era plantation sites on Anguilla and three on Sint Maarten. Using sourcing studies, this research investigates...
New Approaches to Sambaqui Archaeology in Brazil (2017)
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...