Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
426-450 (991 Records)
Archaeologists live in a reality in which gender, sexuality, race, age, and occupational identities (to name a few) are pervasive and impactful in our professional and personal lives. Our individual experiences in the world are always being shaped by our place at the intersection of multiple perceived and/or performed identities in the multiple social landscapes we inhabit. It then must be accepted that social identities operated similarly for people in the past. Still, there remains a hesitance...
Identity, Residential Mobility and Anthropogenic Lead in early colonial Huamanga (Ayacucho), Peru (2017)
La Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús de Huamanga, the earliest Jesuit church in modern-day Ayacucho, Peru, was built in AD 1605 near the main plaza. Famous for its baroque art, this standing church is in need of extensive renovations. In a partial restoration in 2008, an archaeological excavation uncovered human and faunal remains underneath the church floor proper, and underneath the floors of associated chapels. Upon examination, only indigenous individuals appear to be buried underneath the...
Illicit Landscapes and Illegal Economies in 19th century Southern Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Contested Landscapes: The Archaeology of Politics, Borders, and Movement" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper examines how peripheral landscapes, along the coast and cayes of Southern Belize, shaped the region’s early colonial period (AD 1544-1840). Specifically, who were the people who settled southern Belize and how did the economies and industries that formed around them critically impact both Spanish and...
Illuminating Haiti’s Royal Past: Advancing Analytics Through 3D Data Fusion of Terrestrial Surface Models and Subsurface Geophysical Data (2018)
Since 2015, the Milot Archaeological Project has conducted a series of archaeological explorations at the Royal Palace of Henry Christophe in the town of Milot in Northern Haiti. This site, called Sans-Souci, was a principal site of political authority in the short-lived Kingdom of Haiti (1811-1820) and is a UNESCO World Heritage site of paramount importance to national development strategies in Haiti. Working with the Institute Sauvegarder du Patrimoine Cultural (Haiti), the Bureau National...
Imagined Forests: Woodlands and Wood Resources in Medieval Icelandic Literary, Documentary and Archaeological Sources (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. Medieval literary sources describe the Icelandic landscape when the first settlers arrived as ‘forested from the mountains to the shores’. It had previously been thought that the island was rapidly deforested after settlement, but recent research gives a much more nuanced picture of woodland history. It...
The Imbalanced Archaeology of Honduras: Challenges and Potentials (2018)
This paper presents a brief overview over past and current trends in non-Maya archaeology of Honduras. From the beginnings of archaeological investigations in Honduras, there has been a strong research focus on the Maya city of Copan in the extreme west of the country. But already in early years, pioneers like William D. Strong, Doris Stone and Claude Baudez made valuable contributions, in order to reveal the hidden history of central Honduras, the Atlantic and the Pacific coast. The lack of...
The Impact of Climate Dynamics and Cultural Change on the Demography and Population Structure of Pre-Columbian Populations in the Atacama (2017)
Archaeological studies in the Central Andes have pointed at the temporal coincidence of climatic fluctuations and episodes of cultural transition throughout the pre-Columbian period. Although most scholars explain the connection between environmental and cultural changes by the impact of climatic alterations on the capacities of the ecosystems inhabited by pre-Columbian cultures, direct evidence for assumed demographic consequences has been missing so far. Desert margin areas, as we find them at...
The impacts of cattle introduction in Puerto Rican landscapes during the colonial period (2017)
In this presentation I examine the environmental impacts that cattle introduction had in Puerto Rico by combining geoarchaeological and ethnohistorical methods. During the sixteenth century hides became one of the most profitable commodities to be produced in the Caribbean. For the bigger islands of the Antilles, it has been reported that these early populations proliferated, leading to underground economies based upon their exploitation. Through the analysis of historical accounts and the...
Imperial authority and local agency: Investigating the interplay of disruptive technology, indirect authority, and changing ritual practice at Dos Cruces. (2017)
The Chimu smelting site of Dos Cruces is located along the Zaña River in the middle valley of the greater Lambayeque area. Dos Cruces is located at the intersection of two major trade routes and nearby several rich sources of copper ore. The smelting of ore at Dos Cruces utilized wind powered smelting technology, a new innovation for this region. Despite its obvious Chimu affiliations, Dos Cruces lacks an audiencia, or indeed any indication of Chimu administrative oversight. The denizens of Dos...
Imperial Remodeling: Hatuncancha and Later Inca Construction (2019)
This is an abstract from the "How Did the Inca Construct Cuzco?" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Though generations of scholars have mapped nearly all the standing architecture of the imperial and colonial city of Cusco, nevertheless, the site remains caught in the hypothetical moment of its apogee prior to its destruction during the Great Inca Revolt. A recent intensive survey of the central portion of the city provides nuanced data that permits a...
The Importance of Specialized Use Sites in the Settlement History of Iceland (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Climate and Heritage in the North Atlantic: Burning Libraries" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sandvík, located in the Westfjords of Iceland, seems to have been a seasonally utilized site focused primarily on winter fishing and fish processing. The site is situated directly on the coast, quite near to the main farm of Bær, and dates to very early in the settlement period of Iceland, which began around AD 877. Even...
In the Hunt for Mona Island Guano Miners: Archival Documentation in the General Archives of Puerto Rico (2018)
This paper presents initial archival research from the "Archivo General de Puerto Rico" (Puerto Rican General Archives) relating to C19th-20th guano extraction on Mona island in the Caribbean. This is part of a PhD project which examines the lives of guano miners through archaeology and historic archives. Guano as a manure was highly sought as a fertilizer during the nineteenth century for its high contents of nitrogen, phosphate and potassium, nutrients needed for plant growth. It...
In the Middle of Nowhere: Inter-nodal Archaeology and Mobility in the Southern Andes (2017)
"Inter-nodal archaeology" contributes to research on social processes through the study of the areas between nodes, i.e., places where human activities tend to cluster (sites or densely settled areas, depending on the scale). By focusing on the material traces directly generated by people’s movement, this approach holds great potential for addressing questions regarding who travelled across regions and why. These possibilities are illustrated through research conducted in three inter-nodal areas...
In the Third Degree: Modeling and Photogrammetry at the Ancient Maya Site of Pacbitun, Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The archaeological site of Pacbitun is located in west central Belize and has a long history of occupation at the site. Starting in the Middle Preclassic (600 – 400 BC) and continuing until AD 800-900. Recent student research projects have led to three differing uses of photogrammetry. First has been for public education and outreach, with students converting...
INAA of Loro Ceramics from Zorropata, a Middle Horizon Las Trancas Habitation Site in Nasca, Peru (2017)
Early in the Middle Horizon (c. AD 650-1000), the Wari Empire expanded from its Ayacucho homeland and established at least three colonies (Pacheco, Pataraya, and Inkawasi) in the Southern Nasca Region (SNR) on the South Coast of Peru. Concomitant with the Wari presence local settlement patterns underwent dramatic reorganization. Large portions of the population shifted from the Nasca and Taruga Valleys south to the Las Trancas Valley – away from and perhaps in contention with the Wari. A new...
The Inca Dogs and their Ancestors (2017)
The goal of this paper is to elucidate the social role of the dog in ancient Peru as an artifact, a physical manifestation of culture, produced by humans, through archaeological and iconographic interpretation. The large numbers of dogs available for study are a neglected archaeological resource, and one that can provide a wide variety of information on human life and cultures in ancient Peru. Through the examination of archaeological dog remains and dog iconography from differing temporal and...
Inca Presence at Las Huacas, Chincha Valley (2017)
When the Spanish arrived to the coast of Peru they heard stories of the wealthy Chincha Kingdom and the privileged position that they enjoyed within the Inca Empire. Previous archaeological and ethnohistorical research has concluded that at the Chincha Kingdom’s capital of La Centinela, the Inca rulers set up their authority alongside the local lord, and that they left him in charge of ruling the rest of the valley. This poster will present recent research conducted at the site of Las Huacas, a...
Inca Road Emplacement: The case of Canturillas - Nieve-Nieve in the Lurin Valley, Huarochirí, Lima, Peru (2017)
The Qhapaq Ñan or Great Inca Road was declared World Heritage by UNESCO in June 2014. The section of the road located between Pachacamac Sanctuary and the Inca administrative center of Hatun Xauxa (central highlands of Peru), is one of the most important, and one of the segments considered for the UNESCO declaration. Within this portion, the stretch from Canturillas to Nieve-Nieve is located near to the modern town of Nieve Nieve in a desert area, right where the Andes start raising, and...
The Inca State and the Valley of Acari, Peru (2018)
The south coast of Peru was one of the regions conquered relatively early by the expanding Inca state. Following its incorporation, a series of Inca administrative centers were established, all linked by a branch of the Inca road. Tambo Viejo was established in the Acarí Valley. The south coast was, in general, incorporated peacefully into the imperial system; the administrative control exercised by the Inca state was likely to have been exerted through local authorities. However, Inca control...
Incas in the Northern Highlands: Late Horizon Evidence at Ichabamba in the Condebamba Valley (2017)
The Condebamba valley, covering the southern part of the Cajamarca-Huamachuco road, constituted the privileged scenario of the interaction among local groups and foreign empires. Several surveys along this part of the Inca road have established the cultural sequence in the region and the main features of its settlements. One of these sites, Ichabamba, exhibits stone walls in a rectangular layout, with two narrow subdivisions framing a large central space. Due to its architectural features,...
Incorporating "Otherness" to Archaeological Research. (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. Much has been written about widening our research scopes to incorporate peripheral topics that include ethnicity, class, gender, age, and status. Although these past decades there has been significant progress, we should ask ourselves how can we impact and motivate students to address these issues. This presentation will demonstrate...
An Independent Center of Early Ceramic Production in SW Amazonia (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Monte Castelo has one of the earliest records of ceramic production in the New World. Occupation of the site dates to between 6000 and 700 BP and demonstrates covariances between technological changes and environmental scenarios since the beginning of its chronology. We present petrographic, chemical, and isotopic data on ceramics from different periods to...
Indian Ethnic Complexity in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico and Its Implications for the Study of European/Indian Contact During the Early Colonial Period (2018)
Scholarly interest utilizing archaeological and ethnohistorical studies to understand the genesis and development of Caribbean creole societies has grown in the last few years. Perspectives have shifted to emphasize the diversity of groups in the Caribbean during precolonial times, and how this continued into the colonial period as Europeans and Africans coalesced in the area. The conflictual aspect of this interaction whereby Europeans imposed a system of forced labor, along with drastic Indian...
Indians and Africans: Food, Ethnicity and Status in Early Colonial Cuba (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Intangible Dimensions of Food in the Caribbean Ancient and Recent Past" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the first half of the sixteenth century the Spanish colonial project in the Greater Antilles was based on the intensive exploitation of Indians and Africans, who saw the transformation of all aspects of their existence, including the food issue. Using historical and archaeological data, this article...
Indigenous and Transcultural Implications in the "Seasoning" of Early 17th-Century Settlers of Barbados (2018)
The early 17th century settlement of Barbados is often projected as "Little England" and the settlers unidimensional as "Englishmen Transplanted" onto a rather blank slate of an abandoned island (Puckrain 1984, Gragg 2003). Current archaeological investigations of the initial period of colonial settlement on Barbados focusing on Trents Plantation, and the pre-sugar era (1627-1640s) project an all-together different picture. The archaeological and historical record projects a multivalent,...