Republic of Suriname (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
351-375 (913 Records)
Excavations at the Chimú site of Huanchaquito located in the Moche Valley (northern coast of Peru) leaded to the discovery of an exceptional sacrificial deposit of more than 200 domestic camelid skeletons. This finding adds to the many testimonies of the presence of camelids on the Peruvian coast during the pre-Hispanic era. The abundant presence of animals suggests - but does not bring definitive evidence - that breeding took place locally in an unfavorable arid environment. Measurements of...
Geometric Morphometrics on the Spot: When Artifact Shape Tells Us More of Prehistoric Lithic Variability in São Paulo State, Brazil (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation contemplates the application of a method of analysis for the study of artifact shape named geometric morphometrics (GM). GM is a quantitative method originated in the biological sciences with a large application in evolutionary biology for the analysis of organismal form. Evolutionary archaeologists have been employing this approach to...
Getting Creative with Photogrammetry: Adventures in Dos Mangas, Ecuador (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Photogrammetry, the science of converting two-dimensional images into immersive 3D models, traditionally adheres to a strict set of guidelines and specialized tools. However, this poster explores the spirited realm of photogrammetry with rule bending and limits to achieve success in Dos Mangas, Ecuador. In this resource-constrained setting, innovators...
A GIS Analysis of Production Areas, Ritual Spaces, and Socioeconomics at the Mixed Inka-Local Administrative Center of Turi, Northern Chile (2017)
While anthropologists are often concerned with profiling the socioeconomic character of the cultures they study, this task can be challenging for archaeological researchers investigating long-abandoned settlements. Intrasite socioeconomic reconstructions in particular may depend upon such factors as the accurate detection of specific production activities and the partitioning of architectural features into socially informative categories. This paper presents a case study on this topic wherein...
GIS and Drones in the Middle Moche Valley: an Analysis of Huaca Menocucho (2017)
Huaca Menocucho is a prehistoric monumental center located in the middle Moche Valley on the northern coast of Peru. The site shows evidence of several construction and occupation phases of the Moche Valley cultural sequence (Prieto & Maquera, 2015). Huaca Menocucho and the surrounding area have faced looting and destruction from several sources. In July 2016, MOCHE, Inc. conducted a drone survey combined with a systematic surface artifact survey to record information about activities and...
The Greater Chiriquí Fringes: A Perspective from the Coiba National Park Islands on the Pacific Coast of Panama (2018)
The islands of the Coiba National Park (CNP) are located on the continental platform of Panama and the southeastern fringes of the Greater Chiriquí cultural region. During the period of the earliest human migrations to the isthmus (ca. 13,000 - 10,000 a.P.) these islands were connected to the mainland, although the current state of research cannot provide evidence of being inhabited earlier than ca. 1800 B.P. Multidisciplinary research aimed to study the long-term impacts of human on the insular...
Greater Nicoya Metates and the Art Market: A Case Study (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A distinctive tradition of intricately sculpted metates—commonly known as grinding stones—flourished along the Pacific coast of Nicaragua and Costa Rica circa 300-900 CE. The Greater Nicoya burials that contain carved metates often include grave goods made of precious materials such as jade and gold. As a result, these sites have been subject to looting since...
Gruta do Gentio II: data on the new excavations and isotopic signals from the site (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Gruta do Gentio II is an iconic site in the archaeology of Central Brazil because of its early occupation and rich excavation history. Situated in the interfluvial region of the Central Plateau, renewed investigation (after 35 years) offers new perspectives for the site. Data produced during the 1970s and 1980s revealed a wide variety of remains dating...
Harbor Archaeology in Sergipe: Initial Results and Considerations (2016)
In this poster, we intend to discuss some results achieved by the project Harbor Archaeology in Sergipe: inventory and contextualization of structures, developed in the Federal University of Sergipe. We will highlight the remnants and structures identified along the Sergipe River, as well as shipwrecks that have been found in Real and in São Francisco Rivers, both bordering the state of Sergipe. The main goal of this project is to stablish the foundations for the development of a systematic...
Health and Disease during the Ecuadorian Formative: A Case Study from Buen Suceso (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Ecuadorian Formative Period (3800-300 BC) is known for the creation of ceramics, a transition towards agriculture, and the development of sedentary settlements along the Pacific coast. These social and economic changes were often associated with declines in health, as people ate less varied agricultural diets and increasingly encountered pathogens...
The Health of the Herd: Considering Camelid Herding from Late Moche Peru (2017)
The herding of camelids in the pre-Columbian past impacted daily and ritual life of peoples residing there. During the Late Moche period of Peru, camelid herding was a major factor in the trade and exchange of goods, people and ideas. The extent of herding and the degree of camelid breeding in the coastal desert has been understudied. This paper will discuss the patterns in camelid age profiles and pathologies to inform the extent to which camelids where traveling along the coast and into the...
Herds for Gods? Sacrifice and Camelids Management during the Chimú Period (2017)
Although domestic Andean camelids are native from the highlands they have been largely present in the Peruvian coast since the end of Early Horizon (near 200 BC). This presence stresses the symbolic, ritual importance and economic values of camelids. In 2011 an impressive human and animal sacrificial context dating from the Chimú period was found in Huanchaquito near Chan Chan on the northern coast. At least 130 children and 200 camelids were uncovered during the successive excavations that took...
Heritage and Territoriality: Past, Present, and Future Perceptions among the Tacana, Tsimane, and Mosetén in Bolivia (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Politics of Heritage Values: How Archaeologists Deal with Place, Social Memories, Identities, and Socioeconomics" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Preliminary results of the collaborative methodologies applied in two years of intense fieldwork in the Bolivian Amazon will be presented, and we will reflect on the different roles played by archaeological and sacred sites in the Tsimane, Mosetén, and Tacana indigenous...
Heritage Conversations with Dos Mangas (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Finding Community in the Past and Present through the 2022 PARCC Field School at Buen Suceso, Ecuador" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological investigations in Dos Mangas began in 2006, and continued with excavation of a Valdivia village site, Buen Suceso, in 2009, 2017, 2019, and 2022. Those and subsequent excavations have combined archaeological inquiry with community engagement activities such as...
High C4 plants consumption from the Late Intermediate period in Cuzco region. (2017)
Maize was one of the important crops for Inca political economics as a ritual and a staple food. In previous study of sacrificed children mummies found at Mt. Llullaillaco, the individuals particularly consumed C4 resources (such as maize, amaranth and domestic animals raised with C4 plants) in ritual activities. Contrary, the dietary compositions of Machu Picchu skeletons have shown diversity. The individuals from Mt. Llullaillaco and Machu Picchu were most probably immigrated from different...
Hinterland Domestic Economies: A Summary of Recent Investigations at the San Lorenzo Settlement Cluster (2018)
This paper summarizes recent archaeological investigations at the San Lorenzo settlement cluster in the Mopan River Valley of Western Belize. Current research at this ancient hinterland settlement is concerned with better understanding household economic organization and integration during the Late and Terminal Classic (A.D. 670-890) occupations of this site. Households are fundamental units of economic organization in both past and present societies. The examination of ancient household...
A Historical Perspective on the Nature of Precolonial Settlements in the Middle Xingu River Basin (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in the Xingu River Basin: Long-Term Histories, Current Threats, and Future Perspectives" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In order to understand the processes that generated the rich, complex, and diverse cultural and environmental history present in Amazonia, and specifically along the Xingu River basin, it is crucial that we generate information on when, where, and how small-scale foraging societies...
A History of Knowledge of the Amazonian Dark Earths (2018)
The anthropogenic origin of the Amazonian dark earths (Terra Pretas) has been a methodologically assured fact for 70 years. Especially during the last 30 years, Terra Preta have been scientifically investigated with increasing intensity and in an ever-widening context. Currently, the dominant concept guiding research is the idea of binding atmospheric carbon which artificially produced dark earths. The large-scale production of terra preta is said to be an efficient instrument to combat global...
A History of Landscape Transformation and Environmental Change across the Ascope Irrigation System of the Chicama Valley. (2017)
The sequence of landscape transformation across the area of the Ascope Canal System in the Chicama Valley involved both natural and anthropogenic events and processes that unfolded in nonlinear ways. We argue that early events were crucial in determining transformations later in the sequence. In the arid environment of the North Coast, water availability plays a key role in landscape histories. This paper highlights evidence for El Niño events, water management, and changing ecologies for the...
Holocene Geology and Paleoenvironmental History of the lower Chicama River Valley and Coast (2017)
This paper focuses on reconstructing the Holocene paleoenvironmental history of the lower Chicama River valley and coastal system, which has provided diverse natural resources for the Preceramic cultures at Huaca Prieta and Paredones. The archaeological site of Huaca Prieta is situated on the southern tip of a Pleistocene terrace along the shore, ~3 km north of the Chicama River mouth and floodplain system. Paredones is located 0.6 km to the north on the eastern edge of the terrace. Here we...
Holocene Human Adaptations on the Pacific Coast of Central America (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Human Behavioral Ecology at the Coastal Margins: Global Perspectives on Coastal & Maritime Adaptations" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Holocene human adaptations to the Pacific coast of southern Mesoamerica and Central America are documented at a number of locations from southern Mexico to Panama. Evidence comes from Archaic-Period shell mounds, Early Formative sites at the edge of dry land behind the mangrove...
The House that Built Me: local and non-local among the Lurin Yauyos during the Inka Empire (2017)
Most scholarship on the shifts in local lifeways during the Late Horizon strictly focused on changes in the availability to new and limited-access goods by local elites (D’Altroy 2001; Hastorf 1990; 2003). In these models, local leaders became immersed in reciprocal and status-granting relationships with the Inka through gifts and exclusive artifacts. Materiality played a pivotal role in the relationship between the Inka and their subjects. However, it is less clear how local ethnicity was...
Household dynamics and the reproduction of early village societies in Northwest Argentina (200BC-AD 350). (2017)
Long term evolutionary narratives on South Andean pre-Columbian history have stressed lineal processes of complexity intensification, defined by big changes on subsistence strategies, from small and egalitarian hunter gatherer groups to complex multicommunitarian chiefdoms. These changes were thought to influence or even determine the structure of household and consequently daily life of people. Nevertheless recent household archaeology studies have demonstrated that the reproduction of...
Houses of Colonial Chiefly Authority: Local Elites in the Social Order of Mawchu Llacta, a Colonial Reducción Town in the Southern Highlands of Peru (2017)
As a result of the Toledan Reforms in the Viceroyalty of Peru during the late fifteenth century, new settlements known as reducciones were established to centralize indigenous populations. Such is the case of Mawchu Llacta, originally Espinar de Tute, in the Caylloma Province, Arequipa. The introduction of these sweeping reforms brought a series of major changes to the social order. External agents were established as the new bearers of power and local elites took on a secondary status. However,...
How Advances in Archaeobotany Benefit Us All: Perspectives from Zooarchaeology, Bioarchaeology, and Isotope Research (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Fryxell Symposium in Honor of Dolores Piperno" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The origin of agriculture in the American tropics drastically altered human societies and their environmental settings. Through the domestication of various plants for subsistence, medicine, and technological purposes, human populations grew and expanded at an unprecedented rate across the landscape from the Middle Holocene onward, spreading...