Republic of Costa Rica (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
1,351-1,375 (1,574 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Feathercrafts were vital to prestige economies of the ancient Americas. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms and sources of feathered textile production can illuminate the nature of the trade networks that supported elite socioeconomic pursuits. In the 1940s, local farmers discovered an unprecedented cache of feathered textile panels wrapped in...
Stable Isotope Analysis of Human and Animal Remains from Trent’s Plantation, Barbados, 17th through 19th Centuries (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. Geochemical studies of stable isotopes on archaeological skeletal material offer information on human and animal diet, mobility and migration, exchange, and climate. Here, we apply stable isotope studies to human and animal remains recovered from archaeological excavations at Trent’s Plantation in Barbados. Trent’s Plantation...
Standards for Crime Scene Investigation: An OSAC Update (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Forensic Archaeology: Research & Practice" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) is a federal effort coordinated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to create standards of best practice for all disciplines within forensic science. In 2015, NIST created an OSAC subcommittee to address the lack of standards within crime scene investigation. ...
Stark Variation: New Insights into Dire Wolves and their Interactions with Humans (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Human Interactions with Extinct Fauna" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dire wolves are an iconic extinct Pleistocene species in the Americas and their interactions with humans at Paleoindian sites has been largely unknown. Here we explore potential interactions between dire wolves and Paleoindians at sites in the San Pedro Valley, Arizona. We also present new radiocarbon dates and the results of our ancient DNA...
The State of the Art in Stating Risk: Assessment of Climate Vulnerability Assessments for National Park Service Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Resources (2018)
Across America, the National Park Service has conducted an array of vulnerability assessments for climate change impacts for cultural heritage resources, including archaeology, historic structures, cultural landscapes, and others. A project is currently underway to analyze these assessments. This process is designed to improve the practice of vulnerability assessments as well as scientific understanding of cultural resources vulnerability to climate change. In this paper we share preliminary...
Status and Identity at the Margins of Empire: Foodways in pre-Inka and Inka Cuzco (2017)
Diet and cuisine are key practices in the daily negotiation of status and identity, particularly when studied at the household level. In the Maras region of rural Cuzco, the developing Inka state and a rival polity known ethnohistorically as the Ayarmaka maintained autonomous economic, social, and political practices. While other groups in the Cuzco region exchanged goods and shared some cultural practices with the Inka, the Ayarmakas did not. In the 15th century, the Ayarmaka suddenly abandoned...
Steering through North American Archaeology: Reflections on the Effectiveness of an Open Textbook Steering Committee (2018)
As an open educational resource, this textbook has been designed to incorporate the perspectives and expertise of a variety of different scholars and stakeholders from across North America. Early in the process, a ‘steering committee’ was established to try and ensure balanced coverage, maintain a relatively consistent voice, and iron out any difficulties that may arise. The steering committee has also been responsible for some of the small but important details like hunting down copyrights,...
Stephen Williams and The Vacant Quarter Phenomenon (2018)
Stephen Williams proposed the idea of a Vacant Quarter based on the abandonment of numerous Mississippian polities throughout much of the Midsouth and Midwest. The unprecedented, large-scale depopulation of an approximately 130,000 square kilometer area has been linked with population movements as well as interpolity conflict. By taking a dendroclimatological approach we evaluate the role of climate change in this process, while also being cognizant of social processes. We postulate a staggered...
Stewarding Cultural Landscapes: Managing an Eroding Coastal Site at Pu`uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Perched sand deposits and pocket beaches dot the shoreline at Pu'uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park on the island of Hawai'i. Keone'ele Cove, situated along the northern boundary of the park, is a key part of the cultural landscape where Hawaii’s ruling class landed canoes and hosted gatherings, and where native Hawaiians continue these practices in...
Stitching Histories: Women in the Puerto Rican Clothing Industry between 1910-1930. (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. This case study focuses on the reconstruction of stories of women who worked in the clothing industry, specifically dressmakers and seamstress in the Mercado neighborhood of San Juan, Puerto Rico, between 1910-1930. The aim of this research is to demonstrate the viability of using primary sources such as maps, population census and...
Stone Tools from the Buen Suceso Site, Santa Elena, 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 the summer of 2018, the lithic artifacts of two units of the Late Valdivia (2100 BC - 1800 BC) occupation of the Buen Suceso site were analyzed as an undergraduate research project. The Valdivia people were a settled agricultural society based on the utilization of marine, forest, and riverine resources. The people of Buen Suceso lived on the edge of the...
Stone tools use at Cerros: the ethnoarchaeological and use-wear evidence (1987)
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...
Stop, Collaborate, and Listen: Steps toward Data Interoperability and Reuse across Archaeological Disciplines and Professions (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Refining Archaeological Data Collection and Management to Achieve Greater Scientific, Traditional, and Educational Values" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological data collected by CRM firms and academics are rarely interoperable, making it difficult to reuse information. Though most archaeological datasets produced are the result of compliance work, they are rarely used outside of the specific project for...
The Storage Systems in the South Coast Region: The Case of the Cañete Valley (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. Undoubtedly, storage systems played a key role in Inca political and economic organization in the Andes. The Inca state employed these goods stored for different purposes, such as supporting military campaigns, financing state works, and hosting ceremonial activities. However, most research on Inca storage has focused on the storage facilities...
Stored and Forgotten: Academic Research Projects using Archaeological Collections (2018)
Around the world, there are a large number of archaeological collections in the repositories of museums, universities, foundations, government agencies and other organizations. The curation crisis has generated a great deal of debate as to how we can help to ameliorate the various problems faced in collections management. This paper will present a proposal of how collections can be used to develop academic projects, both in local repositories and those outside the country, by outlining case...
Storytelling in the Creation of Cahokia, a Native American Theater State (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Art Style as a Communicative Tool in Archaeological Research" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. I have argued that Cahokia might best be understood as the capital of a Native American theater state, which drew people to it and spread its influence not through armies but by attracting followers through theatrical rituals (Zimmermann Holt 2009). In current research I argue that storytelling was primary among those rituals....
Stress and daily life in an Andean reducción town: preliminary osteological analyses of juvenile burials in a church sacristy (2017)
Juvenile mortality and morbidity is a sensitive marker of overall group health, as juvenile individuals are more susceptible to circulating endemic diseases and nutritional stress. Thus, reconstructing relative frailty of the juvenile population at Mawchu Llacta provides important data about daily life at this colonial site, in a relatively understudied transitional period of Peruvian history. In this paper, we present the results of preliminary skeletal analyses of burials excavated from the...
Strontium provenancing wooden artefacts from Pitch Lake, Trinidad (2017)
Several wooden artefacts were found at Pitch Lake, Trinidad, one of the world's largest asphalt 'lakes', and a recent dating programme has shown that they range from ca. AD 600 to 3000 BC. This paper reports on the investigation of their provenance through strontium isotope analysis, with the aim of establishing whether the artefacts were made locally or were imports from other regions of Trinidad or even beyond the island. A major challenge of working with wooden artefacts found in Pitch Lake...
Structurally Speaking; Architecture of El Rayo and the Greater Nicoya Region (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. Located on the shore of Lake Nicaragua, El Rayo is a unique archaeological site, enriched with a large material base and many examples of human burial practices. Dating from the Late Bagaces Period (500-800 CE) to the Sapoa Period (800-1300 CE), El Rayo’s stone architectural features cover both major timeframes,...
The Struggle to Maintain an African Cultural Identity: The Case of the Bahamas (2018)
Once the British Parliament abolished the trans-Atlantic trade in African captives the Bahamas became a primary locale for the re-settlement of these persons. Between 1811 and 1860 some 6,000 liberated Africans, as they were called, were re-settled in the Bahamas. These Africans served apprenticeship periods of six to sixteen years, at the end of which they were to be free. Archival documents and archaeological evidence suggest that these indentured Africans were able to maintain a stronger...
Struggling with Complex Decision-Making in Public Policy (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Attention to Detail: A Pragmatic Career of Research, Mentoring, and Service, Papers in Honor of Keith Kintigh" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) and other archaeological organizations struggled with a variety of public policy decisions and organizational policies that eventually resulted in major public laws on both the state and federal levels...
Student-Driven Case Studies of Private Collector Collaborations: From the San Luis Valley of Colorado to Portland, Oregon (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Because of private land and genuine human curiosity, members of the public often hold considerable archaeological knowledge and cultural resources that professionals in the field have historically overlooked. When these collectors are "responsible, responsive stewards", language set forth by the SAA Archaeologist-Collector Collaboration Interest Group, they...
Style vs. Function in Polynesian Fish Hook Shank Variation (2018)
Polynesian i’a makau, or fishhooks, may stand in for ceramics for the purpose of generating culture-historical units, facilitating relative dating of the three Hawaiian assemblages under scrutiny (Allen 1996). Artifact assemblages at Waiahukini, Makalei, and Pu’u Ali’i contained over 1000 intact or partial fishhooks and fragments of shaped pig bone representing unfinished manufacture. Allen’s (2015) conceptual style-function model of hook attributes necessitates a focus on stylistic shank...
Subsistence Economies at Morne Patate: A Zooarchaeological Analysis of a Colonial Plantation Landscape in Dominica (2017)
From the 17th through 20th centuries, the Caribbean region experienced unprecedented demographic and environmental change, with the rise and fall of sugar monoculture and the institution of chattel slavery. These transformations were a result of power imbalances at many scales, and the economic, ecological and social consequences of the migrations and interactions were significant and long-lasting. During the Colonial Period, enslaved communities developed diverse socio-ecological practices to...
Subsistence variations and landscape use of marine foragers in southern South America. New perspectives from an isotopic zooarchaeology (2017)
Predictions based on resource distribution and abundance throughout patches (i.e. patch choice model) are critical to model human-specific decisions. However, information about past abundance or distribution of preys is rare, and archaeological evaluations are normally based on modern ecological parameters. This procedure can face some problems since species distributions are likely to have fluctuated along time as a consequence of different environmental factors, or as the product of human...