Republic of Costa Rica (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
1,301-1,325 (1,875 Records)
It is well established that the ancient Maya favored certain orientations for the buildings in their major urban centers. In the southern Maya lowlands, an orientation of 14° clockwise from the cardinal directions is particularly common. How did the ancient Maya find this orientation? What was their surveying technique? Lidar from many sites shows that this orientation was not limited to major constructions. The smallest residential structures and patio groups, structures spread throughout the...
The Potential of Games, Gamefication, and Virtual Reality in Public Archaeology (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Social-cultural changes and the growth of digital media have lead to new broadcasting methods in archaeology and public archaeology, using computer games, gamefication and virtual reality, as these encourage the user to solve problems and construct social relations that enable personal development and reflections on the past. The purpose of this paper is to...
Potentials and Pitfalls for ZooMS Analysis in the Pacific: A Case Study from Ofu Island (Manu‘a Group, American Samoa) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Zooarchaeological analysis in the Pacific is often limited by the large proportion of small, highly fragmented, non-diagnostic remains recovered from archaeological sites. Recent advances in biomolecular methods, including collagen peptide mass fingerprinting (a.k.a. ZooMS) enable increased taxonomic identifications and refine...
Pots, People and Pacific Nicaragua: Misconceptions about Migrant Mesoamericans and Material Culture (2017)
The production of polychrome pottery in Pacific Nicaragua during the Sapoá and Ometepe Periods (AD 800-contact) has traditionally been attributed to various migrant cultural groups of vague Mesoamerican origin who were living in the region at the time of Spanish contact and who are usually assumed to have displaced the autochthonous inhabitants of Greater Nicoya. Supposed links between specific ceramic types and specific Mesoamerican groups that were originally based more on speculation than on...
Pottery Production and Social Complexity: Ceramic Paste Analysis at the Site of El Campanario, Huarmey Valley, Peru (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The analysis of ceramic pastes can be used to study exchange networks, social identities, and technologies. The variations in the composition of ceramic pastes are related to the selection of clay, and non-plastic materials from ancient ceramists. The choice of these procurement areas is often influenced by technological traditions, social complexities,...
Poultry in Motion: The Translocation of Turkeys (Meleagris spp.) in Ancient Greater Nicoya, Costa Rica (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Materials in Movement in the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The trade and movement of animals and animal-derived artifacts was widespread and varied significantly throughout the ancient Americas, often requiring substantial efforts comparable to that employed in acquiring other material resources or prestige items. Originally native to parts of modern-day Mexico and the United States, turkeys...
Power and Practice, Trauma and Resilience: Exploring the Experiences of Canadian Archaeologists (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Presidential Session: What Is at Stake? The Impacts of Inequity and Harassment on the Practice of Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. How do different archaeological practitioners experience and navigate the power inequities built into our disciplinary institutions? Our 2019 online survey of Canadian archaeologists gathered information from over 550 students and practitioners. It explored experiences of sexual...
Practice and Place: Ceramic Technology and Social Boundaries in the Late to Terminal Classic Belize River Valley (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Where Is Provenance? Bridging Method, Evidence, and Theory for the Interpretation of Local Production" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ceramic provenance studies often focus on resource acquisition to address the question "what is local?", overlooking the role that practice plays in vessel manufacture. Potters must learn to create viable ceramic vessels, engaging with learning networks that extend beyond conventionally...
Pragmatism, Archaeology, and the Race Woman (2018)
At the Phyllis Wheatley Home for Girls in Chicago, and at Pauli Murray’s childhood home, in Durham, NC, black women were in motion, actively reshaping their social worlds. Pragmatism, a philosophy of actions, effects, and consequences is a useful framework for 1) drawing out their theoretical contributions to 20th century social thought and civic activism; 2) understanding their actions via the archaeological record; and 3) thinking through what archaeologies of their lives might mean for us...
Praying to the Predator: Symbols of Insect Animism on Luna Polychrome (2018)
Pacific Nicaragua has long been noted as a cultural crossroads, especially featuring historically documented migrants from central Mexico. Following ethnohistorical accounts, Nahuat speaking groups colonized the Rivas area in the Late Postclassic Ometepe period. The most prominent diagnostic ceramic of this time was Luna Polychrome, often found in mortuary contexts. This paper presents a detailed analysis of over 50 Luna vessels from the Mi Museo collection. The overarching theme of the painted...
Pre-colonial Griddles in Central Nicaragua: An Archaeometric and Archaeobotanical Approach to Foodways at the Barillas Site, Chontales (2018)
Since 2007, the Proyecto Arqueológico Centro de Nicaragua, directed by Alexander Geurds, has excavated several archaeological sites in Chontales, Nicaragua, northeast of Lake Cocibolca. This papers reports on fragments of ceramic griddles recovered in layers dated to cal AD 1275 and 1290 at the Barillas site - unprecedented find challenging our views on ancient foodways in the region. The paucity of these comales has hitherto co-determined narratives on human mobility from Mesoamerica, due to...
Pre-Columbian Adaptation to Fluvial Environments, Chontales, Central Nicaragua: 2018 PRISMA Results. (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Reconstructing the Political Organization of Pre-Columbian Nicaragua" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Alluvial valleys are dynamic environments that continuously change under the influences of flooding and erosive processes caused by climatic and tectonic events. The Roberto Amador site is situated on alluvial deposits, surrounded by a meander of the Mayales River, in the proximity of the city of Juigalpa, Chontales,...
Pre-Columbian ballgame handstones: rejoinder to Clune (1964)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the EXARC Bibliography, originally compiled by Roeland Paardekooper, and updated. Most of these records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us using the...
Pre-Columbian Ceramics in East-Central Belize: A Petrographic Characterization Study (2017)
In 2015-2016, the Stann Creek Regional Archaeology Project (SCRAP) in collaboration with HD Analytical Solutions, initiated a preliminary petrographic characterization study of presumed "local" pottery and daub artifacts, surface collected during settlement survey at the Late to Terminal Classic (ca. 750-1000 C.E.) Maya site of Alabama, Belize. This initial study, though small, has proved mighty in terms of the new information it has revealed, building on earlier studies of Maya communities in...
Pre-Columbian Conflict and Early Social Complexity in Java, Southern Costa Rica (2018)
Based on the Spanish chronicles from the Contact period (Sixteenth century), we know that the inhabitants of what is now Southern Costa Rica were in constant violent conflict, at least during the last pre-Columbian years. On the other side, warriors, captives and trophy heads are a recurrent theme in the sculptures and other artistic representations from this archaeological area. Although the importance of warfare and conflict during the pre-Columbian period has been considered in archaeological...
Pre-Columbian diet and subsistence strategies in the Aconcagua Valley of central Chile, from the Early Ceramic to Late Periods: Evidence from stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopic analyses. (2017)
This research documents past diet and subsistence strategies of the pre-Columbian ceramic societies in the Aconcagua Valley of central Chile. We aim to characterize the late Holocene cultural, social and economic interactions of this geographically strategic zone between the semi-arid north and more fertile central Chile. Dynamic changes over the past two millennia include the establishment of culturally heterogeneous enclaves from the north alongside local populations. The broader region of...
Pre-Columbian Introduction of Legume Trees Prosopis Algarobia Section and Geoffroea decorticans into the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile during the Late Holocene (2018)
Our recent research in the Atacama Desert (18-27°S) proposed that Prosopis trees, Algarobia section (Algarrobo) were introduced during the late Holocene by humans and dispersed through cultural and natural factors. At least 41 direct AMS on seeds and pods retrieved from archaeobotanical and paleoecological contexts (rodent middens and leaf litter deposits) show that the earliest presence occurred ~4200 cal BP but most dates fall over a thousand years later, during and after the Formative period....
Pre-Columbian metallurgy of South America: a conference; 1975 - 1979 (1979)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the EXARC Bibliography, originally compiled by Roeland Paardekooper, and updated. Most of these records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us using the...
Pre-Columbian negative painted pottery; some notes and observations (1985)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the EXARC Bibliography, originally compiled by Roeland Paardekooper, and updated. Most of these records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us using the...
Pre-Columbian Pottery Production in Greater Nicoya: A Cross-Regional Analysis (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Cross-Cultural Petrographic Studies of Ceramic Traditions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Spanning northwest Costa Rica and the Isthmus of Rivas in Pacific Nicaragua, the Greater Nicoya archaeological region has been historically interpreted as a cohesive language and culture area (‘primordially’ Chibchan but shifting to Mesoamerican post-AD 800). Since the 1980s, however, researchers have begun to increasingly...
Pre-Contact Hawaiian Animal Burials: Interspecies Interactions and Embodied Experiences (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Zooarchaeological analyses of pre-contact Hawaiian midden deposits have yielded significant information on subsistence practices and, to a lesser extent, associated foodways practices. Archaeologists have also occasionally excavated burials of non-human domesticated animals, including dog, pig, and chicken. These ritual deposits provide unparalleled...
Precarious and Obsolete Infraestructure:Archaeology of Water Networks in Bogota (2017)
Infrastructure is currently one of the critical studies in social sciences at the global level, having been promoted as one of the great promises of equality and accessibility, through good performance and penetration of public services among the population, as well as a tool that would contribute to strengthen the control, authority and visibility of the State. The case study of the calle real of Bogota, being one of the oldest and most important streets in the city, makes visible what became...
The Preceramic Occupation of Greater Chiriqui: An Assessment of our Current Understanding (2018)
The first substantial evidence of a preceramic occupation of Greater Chiriqui resulted from the 1970 excavations of upland rockshelters in the watershed of the Chiriqui River in Western Panama. Results from these excavations were reported in a 1972 dissertation and the 1980 publication Adaptive Radiations in Prehistoric Panama. Our current understanding of the preceramic period occupations in Greater Chiriqui owes more to subsequent innovations in research methods – phytolith and starch grain...
Precious People: Indigenous Medical-Spiritual Relations in the Archaeology of Maya Childhood (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Marking and Making of Social Persons: Embodied Understandings in the Archaeologies of Childhood and Adolescence" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Previous studies of bodily ornaments from burial contexts have often fixated on notions of wealth, social inequality, and prestige. Although we consider analyses focused on economic wealth, we turn, in particular, to Indigenous and ladino (mestizo) medical-spiritual...
Preclassic Settlement Patterns and Natural Topography in the Mirador Karst Basin of Northern Guatemala (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Multidisciplinary Investigations in the Mirador Basin, Guatemala" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A new model of Preclassic settlement patterns has emerged with the use of lidar to document a large-scale landscape in northern Guatemala. These patterns include highly sophisticated man-made hydrographic features, monolithic transportation networks, extensive residential complexes, and monumental civic complexes...